Ho, ho, ho! I'll have my
laugh now--Ho, ho, ho!"
The room was completely dark, and all in and about the house was so
still that the sound scared them fearfully. The concluding screech made
the place echo again;--but this strange laughter was not necessary to
prevent little Robert from further sleep, as he found himself one moment
seized by the feet and pulled to the bottom of the bed, and the next
moment dragged up again on his pillow. This was no sooner done, than by
the same invisible power he was pulled down again, and then his head
would be dragged back, and placed as high as his brother's.
"Short and long won't match,--short and long won't match,--ho, ho, ho!"
shouted the well-known voice of the Boggart, between each adjustment of
little Robert with his tall brother, and thus were they both wearied for
more than a hundred times; yet so great was their terror, that neither
Robert nor his brother--"Long John," as he ever afterwards was
called--dared to stir one inch; and you may well suppose how delighted
they both were when the first grey light of the morning appeared.
"We'st now ha' some rest, happen," said John, turning on his side in the
expectation of a good nap, and covering himself up with the bed-clothes,
which the pulling of Robert so often backwards and forwards had tumbled
about sadly.
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