midnight
She let off her ecstasy in `` Balerma , '' and `` Arlington , '' and `` Silver Street , '' and at last in that most riotous of devotional hymns , which sounds as if it had been composed by a saint who had a cellar under his chapel , -- `` Jordan . '' So she let her wild spirits run loose ; and then a tenderer feeling stole over her , and she sang herself into a more tranquil mood with the gentle music of `` Dundee . '' And again she pulled quietly and steadily at her oars , until she reached the wooded region through which the river winds after leaving the `` Broad Meadows . '' The tumult in her blood was calmed , yet every sense and faculty was awake to the manifold delicious , mysterious impressions of that wonderful June night , The stars were shining between the tall trees , as if all the jewels of heaven had been set in one belt of midnight sky . The voices of the wind , as they sighed through the pines , seemed like the breath of a sleeping child , and then , as they lisped from the soft , tender leaves of beeches and maples , like the half-articulate whisper of the mother hushing all the intrusive sounds that might awaken it . Then came the pulsating monotone of the frogs from a far-off pool , the harsh cry of an owl from an old tree that overhung it , the splash of a mink or musquash , and nearer by , the light step of a woodchuck , as he cantered off in his quiet way to his hole in the nearest bank . The laurels were just coming into bloom , -- the yellow lilies , earlier than their fairer sisters , pushing their golden cups through the water , not content , like those , to float on the surface of the stream that fed them , emblems of showy wealth , and , like that , drawing all manner of insects to feed upon them .