midnight
For a few moments she stood at the window , looking out into the night and listening to the sleepy murmurs from the room above . It would be good sleighing for Santa Claus , she thought , and then smiled at the childishness of the idea . The storm had died away at sunset , and the soft , light snow lay white on the ground , and piled high on the evergreen hedge at the side of the house . In the cold , still air , the stars glittered like little , pricking points of steel , throwing a faint light over the town below ; while , far down in the quiet western sky , lay the tiny silver thread of the baby moon , as if anxious to linger above the horizon for a peep into the happy Christmas world , when the midnight bells should ring in the glad news , centuries old , yet ever coming to us with all the fresh joy of that first eastern Christmas dawn . Jean 's eyes wandered from the snow below to the sky above , then dropped again to the distant lights that were shining out from the upper rooms of the Hapgood house . Even the attic was ablaze , for Mrs. Hapgood still kept to the old-fashioned custom of illuminating the house on Christmas eve . How Jean wished she could peep in to see what they were all doing !