nine o'clock at night
And it was a night that all of the children and most of the grown folks , too , would be likely to remember . The Armatage children knew a great deal more about the plantation and the country surrounding it than the Bunkers did . That was only natural . Philly or Alice or Frane , Junior , would not have started off secretly , as Russ and Rose Bunker did , after nine o'clock at night to go down to the place where old Mammy June 's cabin had been burned . To tell the truth , the Armatage children had associated so much with the colored folks about the plantation that they were inclined to believe that there might be such things as `` ha ` nts . '' The little Bunkers had heard of `` ghosts '' ; but they looked on such things as being like fairies -- something to half-believe in , and shiver about , all the time knowing that they were not real . So Russ and Rose had no actual fear of haunts when they started down the cart-path toward the wide brook where Russ had had his first adventure catching the big fish .