midnight
The chances were at least even of its being available on Christmas-eve , and of Santa Claus having thus done him a good turn after all . Then there was the snug berth in the sandbox you could curl all up in . Nibsy thought with regret of its being , like the hay-barge , so far away and to windward too . Down by the printing-offices there were the steam-gratings , and a chance corner in the cellars , stories and stories underground , where the big presses keep up such a clatter from midnight till far into the day . As he passed them in review , Nibsy made up his mind with sudden determination , and , setting his face toward the south , made off down town . * * * * * The rumble of the last departing news-wagon over the pavement , now buried deep in snow , had died away in the distance , when , from out of the bowels of the earth there issued a cry , a cry of mortal terror and pain that was echoed by a hundred throats . From one of the deep cellar-ways a man ran out , his clothes and hair and beard afire ; on his heels a breathless throng of men and boys ; following them , close behind , a rush of smoke and fire .