midnight
You think up something , brother ; do n't let me go to perdition all alone for the lot of yarns I 've been reeling off to your sweetheart . '' `` Very well , '' assented the other ; `` I 'll set my wits to work . Now you lie down and rest a bit , while I stay up and tend the fire . At midnight I will wake you and lie down myself while you watch . '' Aaron lay down with a bundle of twigs under his head for a pillow , and , muttering a snatch of a prayer , was fast asleep in a twinkling . Manasseh was now left undisturbed to devise something new and surprising against his brother 's awakening . Tearing a leaf from his sketch-book , he wrote as follows : `` DEAR BROTHER AARON : -- I can not close my eyes in sleep while death threatens our brothers Simon and David .