midnight
`` And this story of a ghost of a coffin , with four ghosts to bear it , that goes up and down in the village all night long , '' said Hester , `` I really do not wonder that it shakes the nerves of the sick to hear of it . They say that no one can stop those bearers , or get any answer from them : but on they glide , let what will be in their way . '' `` Come , tell me , '' said Dr Levitt , `` have not you yourself looked out for that sight ? '' Hester acknowledged that she had seen a real substantial coffin , carried by human bearers , pass down the middle of the street , at an hour past midnight ; the removal of a body from a house where it had died , she supposed , to another whence it was to be buried . This coffin and the ghostly one she took to be one and the same . Dr Levitt mentioned instances of superstition , which could scarcely have been believed by him , if related by another . `` Do you know the Platts ? ''