midnight
`` Some poor tramp who was once a sculptor made them for you , '' she told the wondering pupils . `` John , the janitor , tells me that he was here all last night keeping the fires going because he was afraid the pipes would freeze . This poor artist saw the light , and knocked at the door to ask if he might come in and get warm . I 'm glad to say John asked him in and shared his midnight lunch with him . Then he took him home to breakfast with him . But first the artist made these snow men to please you , and perhaps to see if his old skill still was left to him . '' `` Let us make a snow man in our back yard , '' proposed Bobby to Meg on the way home from school that afternoon .