midnight
Accordingly , I placed myself beside the window , and looked out meditatingly upon the broad lake which lay before our dwelling . The night was very calm and beautiful . The waters from the lake were falling . Tide was going out , and the murmuring clack of a distant sawmill added a strange sweetness to the hour , and mingled harmoniously with the mysterious goings on of midnight . The starlight , not brilliant , was yet very soft and touching . Isolated and small clouds , like dismembered ravens ' wings , flitted lightly along the edge of the western horizon , shooting out at intervals brief , brilliant flashes of lightning . There was a flickering breeze that played with the shrubbery beneath my window , making a slight stir that did not break the quiet of the scene , and gave a graceful movement to the slender stems as they waved to and fro beneath its pressure .