midnight
`` Massa B -- ll '' was evidently taken aback by the announcement of the negro , but did not seem inclined to `` give it up so '' at once , for he asked : `` How do you know he 's the Colonel 's friend , Scip ? Who told you so ? '' `` Who told me so ? '' exclaimed the excited negro , `` why , did n't he stay at Captin B -- 's , wid de Cunnel , all night last night ; and did n't dey set up dar doin ' politic business togedder till arter midnight ? Did n't de Cunnel come dar in all de storm ` pressly to see dis gemman ? '' The ready wit and rude eloquence of the darky amused me , and the idea of the `` Cunnel '' travelling twenty miles through the terrible storm of the previous night to meet a man who had the New York _ Independent _ about him , was so perfectly ludicrous , that I could not restrain my laughter . That laugh did the business for `` Massa B -- ll . ''