Midnight
His stillness was something marvelous . Even had it been light , an ordinary observer would not have seen him move a hair 's breadth . He was a part of the silent wilderness . Midnight , and then the long hours . Faint noises arose in the thickets , bet the ear of the gray statue was alive , and he knew . The rabbits were hopping about , at play , perhaps , in the moonlight ; a deer was passing ; perhaps a panther stirred somewhere ; but these were things that neither he nor Paul feared ; it was only man that they dreaded . After a while a faint , clear note rose , far to the east , and to it came three replies like it , and also far away .