A last load of wood was brought for the fire, Diogenes was transferred to the long rope which enabled him to range all round the camp, and Kink said good night and trudged off to the village inn.
And so the first night began.
Gregory was a little fractious for a while, considering it an indignity to be sleeping in the caravan instead of with the men; but he was no sooner tucked into his berth than he fell asleep and forgot the insult.
The girls were also very soon on their little shelves, either sleeping or drowsily enjoying the thought of sleep; but Robert and Jack and Horace did not hurry.

The fire was still warm, and they huddled round it with Diogenes, and talked, and listened to Moses crunching the grass, and made plans for the morrow.

Then at last they carried the sheeting and the rugs to the tent, and crept into their sacks and prepared to sleep.
With the exception of Gregory, no one slept very well.

Hester was frightened by an owl which hooted close to the caravan, and Janet had to hold her hand for quite a long time, which is a very uncomfortable thing to do when you are in the berth below, and then, just as she was going off again, a rabbit, pursued by a stoat, screamed right under their wheels, as it seemed, and Hester's fright began anew.
Jack and Horace were probably a little over excited, for they were very restless; and to be restless on the hard ground--with no springs, as in our beds at home--is to get sore and wakeful; while Robert was intently conscious of every sound and if you sleep in a field you hear thousands of them--all the rustlings of the little shy nocturnal animals, tiny squeakings and shrillings in the grass, as well as the cries of the birds of prey.

Now and then, too, a spider ran over his face and made him jump, and very early the strong light poured into the mouth of the tent and made it seem absurd to be in bed any longer.
The result was, that it was not till the morning that they began to sleep properly at all, and that made them much less ready to get up than they had expected to be..