.
The night sat lightly around him, he felt he sleep nestle in. It was a tentative feeling. He knew falling asleep that soon the room would light up. The cover s would be pulled back, and he would be forced to stand. The reasoning behind the nightly waking were lost in the madness of the moment. To be be hit, and to be punished to be sure, but for what? But fists never lasted, the slaps, the leather strapping never stayed. And soon he was allowed to sleep again. There were nights they would take his blankets, and some night the would force him to take even his mattress and carry it out in to the night air, and place it outside, walking his bare feet in the dewy grass. And he was forced to return to his room. Sleep the remainder of the night without blankets of=r mattress on the hard plywood of his bed. But he would think of the sweet feeling of dew on his feet and fall asleep with a smile.