midnight
And , meanwhile , I must take a little medicine . '' `` Major , you are not going to doctor yourself ? '' cried Tom . `` There is a certain medicine called prayer , Mr. Thurnall -- an old specific for the heart-ache , as you will find one day -- which I have been neglecting much of late , and which I must return to in earnest before midnight . Good-bye , God bless and keep you ! '' And the Major retired to his bed-room , and did not stir off his knees for two full hours . After which he went to Pennington 's , and thence somewhere else ; and Tom met him at four o'clock that morning musing amid unspeakable horrors , quiet , genial , almost cheerful .