midnight
You are a lie-yer , Marse Alfred , and you know how it is yourself ; and I beg your pardon , sir , for slighting the perfession ; but when I was a little gal , I got my scare of lie-yers , and it has stuck to me like a kuckleburrow . One Christmas eve jest before ole Marster got married , he had a egg-nog party ; and a lot of gentlemen was standing ` round the table in the dining-room . One of 'em was ole Mr. Dunbar , Marse Lennox ' father , and he axed ole Marster if he had saved that game rooster for him , as he promised , Marster told him he was very sorry , but some rogue had done gone and burnt some sulphur the week before in his henhouse , and bagged that ` dentical rooster . Presently Mr. Dunbar axed if Marster would let him have one of the blue hen 's roosters , if he would catch the rogue for him before midnight . Of course Marster said he would . Mr. Dunbar -LRB- Marse Lennox ' pa -RRB- , he was practicing law then , had a pot full of smut on the bottom , turned upside down on the dining-room flo ' , and he and Marster went out to the hen - ` ouse and got a dominicker rooster and shoved him under the pot . Then they rung the bell , and called every darkey on the place into the dining-room , and made us stand in a line .