midnight
There was , for example , Seth Crocker , whose wife explained that she called him Sethie `` for short . '' But Sethie 's name was never pronounced with the same affectionate drawl that Willie 's was . No , Willie had his peculiar niche in Wilton and a very sacred niche it was . What marvel , therefore , that Celestina reverenced the very earth which he trod and cheerfully put up with the strings , the wires , the spools , the tacks , and the pulleys ; that she shifted the meals about to suit his convenience ; and that when she was awakened at midnight by a rhythmic hammering which portended that the inventor had once again `` got kitched with a new idee '' she smiled indulgently in the darkness and instead of cursing the echoes that disturbed her slumber whispered to herself Jan Eldridge 's oft-repeated prediction that the day would come when Willie Spence would astonish the scoffers of Wilton and would make his mark . On a day in June so clear that a sea gull loomed mammoth against the sky ; a day when a sail against the horizon was visible for miles ; a day when the whole world seemed swept and garnished as for a festival , Zenas Henry Brewster drew rein before the Spence cottage , hitched the Admiral to the picket fence that bordered the highway , and ascending the bank which sloped abruptly to the road presented himself at the kitchen door from which issued the aroma of baking bread . `` Mornin ' , Tiny , '' called the visitor , poking his head across the threshold . `` Willie anywheres about ? ''