You girls can sleep in my bed over there , and I 'll take the sofy . Yez can put the cat off if yez like , though he wo n't hurt yez . You boys can go downstairs . There 's a big pile of straw there that 'll do yez for a bed , if yez put your coats on . I 'll light yez down , but I ai n't going to leave yez a light for fear yez 'd set fire to the place . '' Saying good-night to the girls , who looked as if they thought their last hour was come , we went to the lower room . It was quite empty , save for a pile of fire wood and another of clean straw . Casting a stealthy glance around , ere Peg withdrew the light , I was relieved to see that there were no skulls in sight . We four boys snuggled down in the straw . We did not expect to sleep , but we were very tired and before we knew it our eyes were shut , to open no more till morning . The poor girls were not so fortunate . They always averred they never closed an eye . Four things prevented them from sleeping . In the first place Peg snored loudly ; in the second place the fitful gleams of firelight kept flickering over the skull for half the night and making gruesome effects on it ; in the third place Peg 's pillows and bedclothes smelled rankly of tobacco smoke ; and in the fourth place they were afraid the rat Peg had spoken of might come out to make their acquaintance . Indeed , they were sure they heard him skirmishing about several times . When we wakened in the morning the storm was over and a young morning was looking through rosy eyelids across a white world . The little clearing around Peg 's cabin was heaped with dazzling drifts , and we boys fell to and shovelled out a road to her well . She gave us breakfast -- stiff oatmeal porridge without milk , and a boiled egg apiece . Cecily could NOT eat her porridge ; she declared she had such a bad cold that she had no appetite ; a cold she certainly had ; the rest of us choked our messes down and after we had done so Peg asked us if we had noticed a soapy taste . `` The soap fell into the porridge while I was making it , '' she said .
`` But , '' -- smacking her lips , -- `` I 'm going to make yez an Irish stew XXXXX dinner .
In about after before for from of over that without