Midnight
the boy begged . `` I been talkin ' so much , Richard , '' Mr. Poddle stammered , turning hoarse all at once , `` that I gone and lost my voice . '' He decamped to his room across the hall without another word . -LSB- Illustration : Headpiece to _ At Midnight _ -RSB- _ AT MIDNIGHT _ At midnight the boy had long been sound asleep in bed . The lamp was turned low . It was very quiet in the room -- quiet and shadowy in all the tenement ... . And the stair creaked ; and footfalls shuffled along the hall -- and hesitated at the door of the place where the child lay quietly sleeping ; and there ceased .