midnight
But apology was now out of the question . He was a pariah , a leper , and so must continue -- a thing to be shunned . The awful loneliness of his punishment threw him on his own resources . At night he lay in his bed and heard Butsey steal out to a midnight spread behind closed doors , or to join a band that , risking the sudden creak of a treacherous step , went down the stairs and out to wend their way with other sweltering bands across the moonlit ways , through negro settlements , where frantic dogs bayed at the sticks they rattled over the picket fences , to the banks of the canal for a cooling frolic in the none too fragrant waters . In the morning he could not join the group that congregated to listen to Beekstein -- Secretary of Education -- straighten out the involved syntax or track an elusive x to its secret lair . In the afternoon he could not practice on the diamond with them , learning the trick of holding elusive flies or teaching himself to face thunderous outshoots at the plate . This enforced seclusion had one good result : left to his own devices his recitations improved tremendously , though this was scant consolation .