midnight
But the younger generation , who had seen several small floods , thought lightly of these sombre recollections and forebodings ; and Bob Jakin , naturally prone to take a hopeful view of his own luck , laughed at his mother when she regretted their having taken a house by the riverside , observing that but for that they would have had no boats , which were the most lucky of possessions in case of a flood that obliged them to go to a distance for food . But the careless and the fearful were alike sleeping in their beds now . There was hope that the rain would abate by the morrow ; threatenings of a worse kind , from sudden thaws after falls of snow , had often passed off , in the experience of the younger ones ; and at the very worst , the banks would be sure to break lower down the river when the tide came in with violence , and so the waters would be carried off , without causing more than temporary inconvenience , and losses that would be felt only by the poorer sort , whom charity would relieve . All were in their beds now , for it was past midnight ; all except some solitary watchers such as Maggie . She was seated in her little parlour toward the river , with one candle , that left everything dim in the room except a letter which lay before her on the table . That letter , which had come to her to-day , was one of the causes that had kept her up far on into the night , unconscious how the hours were going , careless of seeking rest , with no image of rest coming across her mind , except of that far , far off rest from which there would be no more waking for her into this struggling earthly life . Two days before Maggie received that letter , she had been to the Rectory for the last time .