midnight
He raised himself from the copestone of the parapet , and solemnly tramped his steady way up to the `` onstead '' of Craig Ronald , which took shape before him as he advanced like a low , grey-bastioned castle . As he entered the low square on his way across to the stable door he was surprised to notice a gleam of light in the byre . Ebie thought that some tramps were trespassing on the good nature of the mistress of the house , and he had the feeling of loyalty to his master 's interests which distinguished the Galloway ploughman of an older time . He was mortally afraid of bogles , and would not have crossed the kirkyard after the glimmer of midnight without seeing a dozen corpse - candles ; but tramps were quite another matter , for Ebie was not in the least afraid of mortal man -- except only of Allan Welsh , the Marrow minister . So he stole on tiptoe to the byre door , circumnavigating the `` wicket , '' which poured across the yard its tell-tale plank of light . Standing within the doorway and looking over the high wooden stall , tenanted in winter by Jock , the shaggy black bull , Ebie saw Jess Kissock , lost in her dreams . The lantern was set on the floor in front of her .