midnight
`` Well said , Goodman Brown ! I have been as well acquainted with your family as with ever a one among the Puritans ; and that 's no trifle to say . I helped your grandfather , the constable , when he lashed the Quaker woman so smartly through the streets of Salem ; and it was I that brought your father a pitch-pine knot , kindled at my own hearth , to set fire to an Indian village , in King Philip 's war . They were my good friends , both ; and many a pleasant walk have we had along this path , and returned merrily after midnight . I would fain be friends with you for their sake . '' `` If it be as thou sayest , '' replied Goodman Brown , `` I marvel they never spoke of these matters ; or , verily , I marvel not , seeing that the least rumor of the sort would have driven them from New England . We are a people of prayer , and good works to boot , and abide no such wickedness . ''