.
One of the girls would always sneak if we did, because she was greedy
too, and jealous. Bonne Esther used to peep into our mouths.
Sometimes she caught a very greedy girl. Then she used to roll her
eyes at her, give her a little smack, and say, "I've got my eye on
you." Some of us she trusted. She would make us turn round and open
our mouths and pretend to look at them, and then she said, "Shut your
beaks, birdies," and laughed.

I often wanted to eat the nuts. But I would look at Bonne Esther and
blush at the idea of cheating her, because she trusted me. But after a
time I wanted to eat nuts so badly that I could not think of anything
else. Every day I tried to think of some way of eating them without
being caught. I tried to slip some into my sleeves, but I was so
awkward that I always dropped them. Besides, I wanted to eat a lot of
them, a great big lot. I thought I should like to eat a sackful. One
day I managed to steal some. Bonne Esther, who was taking us up to
bed, slipped on a nutshell and dropped her lantern, which went out. I
was close to a big bowl of nuts, and I took a handful and put them in
my pocket. As soon as everybody was in bed I took the nuts out of my
pocket, put my head under the sheets and crammed them into my mouth.
But it seemed to me at once as though everybody in the dormitory must
hear the noise that my jaws were making. I did all I could to munch
slowly and quietly, but the noise thumped in my ears like the blows of
a mallet.

Bonne Esther got up, lit the lamp, stooped down and looked under the
beds. When she came to mine I looked out at her trembling. She
whispered, "Aren't you asleep yet?" and went on looking. She went
down to the end of the dormitory, opened the door, and closed it again;
but she was hardly back in bed with the light out before the latch of
the door made a little sound as though somebody were opening it. Bonne
Esther lit her lamp again and said, "Whatever is it? It cannot be the
cat opening the door by itself." It seemed to me that she was afraid.
I heard her moving about in her bed, and all of a sudden she called
out, "Oh dear, oh dear." Ismerie asked her what the matter was. She
said that a hand had opened the door, and she had felt a breath on her
face. In the twi-darkness we saw the door half open. I was very
frightened. I thought it was the devil who had come to fetch me. We
waited a long, long time, but we heard nothing more. Bonne