noon of night
_ Flood Tide of Night _ . In these long midsummer nights the twilight lingers till within an hour or two of dawn . When the green cool abyss of fathomless sky melts into pale slate-grey in the west , and the high tide of darkness pauses before it begins to ebb , then is the watershed of day and night . The real noon of night is quite an hour and a half after the witching hour , just as the depth of winter is really a month after the shortest day . Indeed , at this time of the year , it is much too bright at twelve for even so sleepy a place as a churchyard to yawn . And if any ghost peeped out , ` twould only be to duck under again , all a-tremble lest , the underground horologes being out of gear , a poor shade had somehow overslept cockcrow and missed his accustomed airing . _ Way for the Sun _ .