night about midnight
He had a father that had a house with a lightning-rod , so that if you were in it when there was a thunder-storm you could not get struck by lightning , as my boy once proved by being in it when there was a thunder-storm and not getting struck . This in itself was a great merit , and there were grape-arbors and peach-trees in his yard which added to his popularity , with cling-stone peaches almost as big as oranges on them . He was a fellow who could take you home to meals whenever he wanted to , and he liked to have boys stay all night with him ; his mother was as clever as he was , and even the sight of his father did not make the fellows want to go and hide . His father was so clever that he went home with my boy one night about midnight when the boy had come to pass the night with his boys , and the youngest of them had said he always had the nightmare and walked in his sleep , and as likely as not he might kill you before he knew it . My boy tried to sleep , but the more he reflected upon his chances of getting through the night alive the smaller they seemed ; and so he woke up his potential murderer from the sweetest and soundest slumber , and said he was going home , but he was afraid ; and the boy had to go and wake his father . Very few fathers would have dressed up and gone home with a boy at midnight , and perhaps this one did so only because the mother made him ; but it shows how clever the whole family was . It was their oldest boy whom my boy and his brother chiefly went with before that boy who knew about `` Monte Cristo '' came to learn the trade in their father 's office .