midnight
As the aunt of Wolff was known through all the village to have a house and an old stocking full of gold , she did not dare send her nephew to the school for the poor . But she so schemed to obtain a reduction of the price with the school-master whose school little Wolff attended , that the bad teacher , vexed at having a scholar so badly dressed and who paid so poorly , punished him very often and unjustly with the backboard and fool 's cap , and even stirred his fellow-pupils against him , all sons of well-to-do men , who made the orphan their scapegoat . The poor little fellow was therefore as miserable as the stones in the street , and hid himself in out-of-the-way corners to cry ; when Christmas came . The night before Christmas the school-master was to take all of his pupils to the midnight mass , and bring them back to their homes . Now , as the winter was very severe that year , and as for several days a great quantity of snow had fallen , the scholars came to the rendezvous warmly wrapped and bundled up , with fur caps pulled down over their ears , double and triple jackets , knitted gloves and mittens , and good thick nailed boots with strong soles . Only little Wolff came shivering in the clothes that he wore week-days and Sundays , and with nothing on his feet but coarse Strasbourg socks and heavy sabots , or wooden shoes . His thoughtless comrades made a thousand jests over his sad looks and his peasant 's dress .