midnight
Therefore I set to again , with a fixed resolve not to notice pain or stiffness , but to warm them out of me . And sure enough , before dark that day , I could get along pretty freely ; especially improving every time , after leaving off and resting . The astonishment of poor John Fry , Bill Dadds , and Jem Slocombe , when they saw me coming down the hill upon them , in the twilight , where they were clearing the furze rick and trussing it for cattle , was more than I can tell you ; because they did not let me see it , but ran away with one accord , and floundered into a snowdrift . They believed , and so did every one else -LRB- especially when I grew able to glide along pretty rapidly -RRB- , that I had stolen Mother Melldrum 's sieves , on which she was said to fly over the foreland at midnight every Saturday . Upon the following day , I held some council with my mother ; not liking to go without her permission , yet scarcely daring to ask for it . But here she disappointed me , on the right side of disappointment ; saying that she had seen my pining -LRB- which she never could have done ; because I had been too hard at work -RRB- , and rather than watch me grieving so , for somebody or other , who now was all in all to me , I might go upon my course , and God 's protection go with me ! At this I was amazed , because it was not at all like mother ; and knowing how well I had behaved , ever since the time of our snowing up , I was a little moved to tell her that she could not understand me .