midnight
In the little house a great stir and bustle of preparation arose . Putting on his white overalls and forgetting for the time his honourable wounds the father went day after day to his work as a housepainter . He dreamed of a new blue uniform for the great day and in the end achieved the realisation of his dreams , not however without material assistance from what was known in the house as `` Mother 's Wash Money . '' And the boy , convinced by the story of the midnight attack in the woods of Virginia , began against his judgment to build once more an old dream of his father 's reformation . Boylike , the scepticism was thrown to the winds and he entered with zeal into the plans for the great day . As he went through the quiet residence streets delivering the late evening papers , he threw back his head and revelled in the thought of a tall blue-clad figure on a great white horse passing like a knight before the gaping people . In a fervent moment he even drew money from his carefully built-up bank account and sent it to a firm in Chicago to pay for a shining new bugle that would complete the picture he had in his mind .