“Now, Marm, you know this is first night back,” begged Hoop. “We can stay down another half-hour, can’t we? School isn’t really begun yet.”
“Now don’t ask me—” began the matron.
“That’s so, Marm,” interrupted Sandy. “Rules don’t count tonight, you know. We’ll have one more song, eh? Isn’t that it, fellows?”
“Sure thing, Marm! One more song and then we’ll go up. Come on and gather around the thump-box.”
“What’ll it be?” asked Ned, drowning Mrs. Linn’s protests by banging chords.
“‘Yo Heave Ho!’” they cried. “Can you play it, Ned?”
“I guess so. Now, then, sing the verses, Cal, and we’ll do the rest!”
Mrs. Linn subsided in smiling despair and for the tenth time they yo-heave-ho’d until the chandelier swayed. At the final roar of sound Sandy turned out the lights and there was a frantic rush up the stairway.
“Good night, Marm! Good night!”
“Sleep tight, Marm!”