midnight
No word of complaint , not even a hasty gesture betrayed the mental anguish of the persecuted man , and the smith 's heart melted , as he heard the doctor rouse his wife and child from their sleep . The terrified moans of the startled wife , and Ruth 's loud weeping and curious questions , were soon drowned by the lamentations of old Rahel , who wrapped in even more kerchiefs than usual , rushed into the sitting - room , and while lamenting and scolding in a foreign tongue , gathered together everything that lay at hand . She had dragged a large chest after her , and now threw in candlesticks , jugs , and even the chessmen and Ruth 's old doll with a broken head . When the third hour after midnight came , the doctor was ready for departure . Marx 's charcoal sledge , with its little horse , stopped before the door . This was a strange animal , no larger than a calf , as thin as a goat , and in some places woolly , in others as bare as a scraped poodle . The smith helped the dumb woman into the sleigh , the doctor put Ruth in her lap , Ulrich consoled the child , who asked him all sorts of questions , but the old woman would not part from the chest , and could scarcely be induced to enter the vehicle .