midnight
`` A remembered dream , or vision , that came to me three times on my homeward voyage , '' replied the young man , gravely . `` Oh , tell us ! '' exclaimed both the children in duet , with all their childish interest in the marvelous excited to the highest pitch . `` It is a vision of midnight on midocean -- the blackness of darkness above , below , around , beneath . Suddenly into this opaque darkness glows a spark of red light . It increases , spreads , and shoots upward , revealing -- a ship on fire ! Showing the deck crowded with dark figures !