midnight
She listened with growing eagerness to the story , and at its conclusion said : `` I 'm sorry for your mother , Carl , and I do n't know that I can help you any ; but there was something strange that happened at the Phillips ' house last night . '' `` Was it about Dock ? '' asked Carl , eagerly , while Tom could see that the color had left his face all of a sudden . `` Yes , '' continued Mrs. Joslyn , `` Dock seems to have fallen into the habit of staying out until midnight , with some of those young fellows who loaf on the corners and get into every kind of mischief they can think up . '' `` That 's what we 've been told was going on , ma'am , '' said Tom . `` I could hear his father scolding him furiously , while his mother was crying , and trying to make peace . Dock was ugly , too , and for a time I thought his father was going to throw him out of the house .