Aunt Judy paused, but no one spoke.

"What!" cried she suddenly, "will nobody groan? Then I must groan
myself!" which she did, and a most unearthly noise she made; so much
so, that two or three of the little ones turned round to look at the
swelling red curtains, just to make sure the howl did not proceed
from thence.

After which Aunt Judy continued her tale:-

"So much for night and going to bed, about which there is nothing
more to relate, as the little Victims were uncommonly good sleepers,
and seldom awoke till long after daylight.

"Well now, what do you think? By the time they had had a good night,
they felt so comfortable in their beds, that they were quite
contented to remain there; and then, of course, their tormentors
never rested till they had forced them to get up! Poor little
things! Just think of their being made to go to bed at night, when
they most disliked it, and then made to get up in the morning, when
they wanted to stay in bed! It certainly was, as they always said,
'very, very hard.' This was, of course, a winter misery, when the
air was so frosty and cold that it was very unpleasant to jump out
into it from a warm nest. Terrible scenes took place on these
occasions, I assure you, for sometimes the wretched Victims would sit
shivering on the floor, crying over their socks and shoes instead of
putting them on, (which they had no spirit for,) and then the savage
creatures who managed them would insult them by irritating speeches.