midnight
There was a grand ball on the twenty-second of February , to which I invited Hetty Slocum , who accepted my escort . We expected to have lots of fun . The ball-room was in the third story of the Spread-Eagle Hotel . There was to be a splendid supper at midnight in the big dining-room ; hot oysters `` in every style , '' roast turkey , chicken-pie , coffee , and all the sweet fixings . It turned out to be a clear night ; I took Hetty to the hotel in father 's fancy sleigh , in good style , and having got her safely to the door of the ladies ' parlor without a blunder to mar my peace of mind , except that I stepped on her slippered foot in getting into the sleigh , and crushed it so , that Hetty could hardly dance for the pain , I began to feel an unusual degree of confidence in myself , which I fortified by a stern resolution , on no account to get to blushing and stammering , but to walk coolly up to the handsomest girls and ask them out on the floor with all the self-possessed gallantry of a man of the world . Alas ! `` the best-laid plans of mice an ' men must aft gang , '' like a balky horse -- just opposite to what you want them to .