midnight
And even on the northern side of `` the river , '' and `` the ideal line by fancy drawn , '' which `` divide the sister kingdoms , '' there are thousands who welcome and forget not `` blithe Yule Day . '' Next comes the New Year -- the bottle , the hot pint , and the _ first-foot _ -- and we might notice , also , Hansel Monday , and `` Auld Hansel Monanday , '' which follow in their wake , and keep up the merriment till the back of January is broken . But our business at present is with the _ first-foot _ , and we must hold . It matters not on what side of the Borders it may be -- and northward the feeling extends far beyond the Borders -- there is a mysterious , an ominous importance attached to the individual who first crosses the threshold , after the clock has struck twelve at midnight , on the 31st of December , or who is the _ first-foot _ in a house after the New Year has begun . The _ first-foot _ stamps the `` luck '' of the house -- the good fortune or the evil fortune of its inmates throughout the year ! But to begin with our story . There was not a person on all the Borders , nor yet in all Scotland , who attached more importance to the first-foot than Nelly Rogers .