midnight
He lived quite alone , except from Saturday morning till Sunday morning , when Ruth stayed with him and straightened up the rough house . Sometimes Ruth would persuade my mother to let my brother Will and myself stay with them for the night , and dearly did we love going ; for her father , though a silent , cold-mannered man to most people , was always different to any one of us Egertons , and never even grumbled when we got into mischief , though he pretended to be very angry . Once , indeed , he had good cause to be -- as I shall relate . One Saturday evening , after we had finished our supper , Patrick Kenna found that he had run out of tobacco , and said that if we were not afraid of being left by ourselves for a few hours he would walk into Bar Harbour and buy some before the store closed , returning before midnight . Of course we did not mind , and in a few minutes Ruth 's father set out , accompanied by ` King Billy ' and one or two other black-fellows who were in hopes of selling some wild honey for a bottle or two of rum . We watched them disappear into the darkness of the forest , and then , as the night was suitable , my brother Will proposed that we should all go down to the creek and fish for black bream . ` The tide is coming in , Ruth , ' he said gleefully , ` and we 'll have fine sport .