midnight
I asked , when he had told me of this singular experience ; I liked his apparently not coloring it at all . `` I do n't know , '' he answered . `` It seems to be the only way out . '' `` Well , it 's an easy way , '' I admitted , `` and it 's an idea that ought to gratify the midnight platoon . '' I confess that I can not hear people rejoice in their summer sojourn as beyond the reach of excursionists without a certain rebellion ; and yet I have to confess also that after spending a Sunday afternoon of late July , four or five years ago , with the excursionists at one of the beaches near New York , I was rather glad that my own summer sojourn was not within reach of them . I know very well that the excursionists must go somewhere , and as a man and a brother I am willing they should go anywhere , but as a friend of quiet and seclusion I should be sorry to have them come much where I am . It is not because I would deny them a share of any pleasure I enjoy , but because they are so many and I am so few that I think they would get all the pleasure and I none .