midnight
`` She 's uncommon still when strangers is here , sir , '' said Mrs. Chaffin ; `` but law me ! she goes rompitin ' about the house like as if she was crazy sometimes , ticklin ' her father and tryin ' t ' snip off his beard with the scissors . '' That night was the beginning of happier days for me . When at last I rose to go it was near midnight . I forgot my weariness as I walked to my lodgings , thinking of those simple , honest people and of their kindness to me . I enjoyed high jinks at the house of the Chaffins at least once a week during the next year of my apprenticeship , near the close of which I began to get ready for a visit to my stepmother in fulfilment of a promise I had made by letter . It had been , on the whole , a happy year to me .