bug--I'm almost sure it was a
bug!"

But after feeling around on the quilt and finding nothing that felt
like a bug, she decided that after all it might have been a leaf. She
didn't mind the thought of a leaf tumbling down on her nose, so she
carefully smoothed out the tumbled quilt, shook the blanket and laid
them straight and went to bed again.

Usually she fell asleep readily, but to-night she did not feel sleepy.

"I wonder what time it is?" she meditated, turning sideways so that if
another leaf--or bug--should drop it would not fall on her face. "I
wish I'd brought my little clock."

Presently she heard the sound of horse's hoofs on the road, soon saw
the winking white light turn into the drive that led to the barn. She
watched it moving slowly forward, saw it stop and knew that Richard and
Warren were harnessing outside the barn. In another moment the light
flickered out as Warren backed the runabout into the shed and Richard
led the horse to a stall. The hollow echo of the barn door as Richard
slammed and bolted it, came next. She thought she could see the dim
outline of two figures walking toward the bungalow but that might have
been imagination.

Rosemary sighed and twisted about uneasily to face the other way. The
porch light was out! That meant her mother and Hugh had gone to bed
and she was utterly alone on the lawn. She felt inexplicably
abandoned--Hugh might have whistled to her, to see if she were asleep,
before he turned off the light. That, thought Rosemary, would not have
been much to do.

She decided to lie flat on her back for a while. In that position she
might begin to feel sleepy. It was not a pitch-black night, indeed the
darkness seemed half luminous--the kind of light in which, after the
eyes have grown accustomed to it, it is possible to make out the
outlines of objects quite plainly. Rosemary knew she could not be
mistaken when she saw a shadowy form on the other side of the lawn.

She sat up with a jerk, staring. Yes, something was certainly moving.
Frantically she recalled her arguments that all animals slept at night.
How foolish she had been to advance a statement of that sort. Vividly
now she remembered stories heard and read of night marauders--foxes,
weasels--skunks! These prowled about at night and she wouldn't care to
come in contact with any of them.

"Snakes!" whispered Rosemary with a sudden prickling of her scalp. "Do
they go around at night, I wonder?