midnight
And the eyes of those little chaps , lively as a parcel of mice , sparkled in advance with the joy of seeing in their imagination pink paper bags of burnt almonds , lead soldiers drawn up in battalions in their boxes , menageries smelling of varnished wood , and magnificent jumping-jacks covered with purple and bells . Little Wolff knew very well by experience that his old miserly aunt would send him supperless to bed . But in the simplicity of his soul , and knowing that he had been all the year as good and industrious as possible , he hoped that the Christ-child would not forget him , and he , too , looked eagerly forward by-and-by to putting his wooden shoes in the ashes of the fireplace . The midnight mass concluded , the faithful went away , anxious for supper , and the band of scholars , walking two by two after their teacher , left the church . Now , under the porch , sitting on a stone seat under a Gothic niche , a child was sleeping -- a child covered by a robe of white linen , and whose feet were bare , notwithstanding the cold . He was not a beggar , for his robe was new and nice , and near him on the ground were seen , lying in a cloth , a square , a hatchet , a pair of compasses , and the other tools of a carpenter 's apprentice . Under the light of the stars , his face , with its closed eyes , bore an expression of divine sweetness , and his long locks of golden hair seemed like an _ auréole _ about his head .