midnight
It was an urgent message . It imposed upon a man 's conscience the obligation to speed it . It should be delivered with determined expedition . Elsewhere , in a rural community , for example , a good neighbor would not hesitate to harness his horse on a similar errand and travel a deep road of a dark night in the fall of the year ; nor , with the snow falling thick , would he confront a midnight trudge to his neighbor 's house with any louder complaint than a fretful growl . It was in this spirit , after all , touched with an intimate solicitude which his love for Elizabeth Luke aroused , that Tommy Lark had undertaken the passage of Scalawag Run . The maid was ill -- her message should be sped . As he paused on the brink of the lane , however , waiting for the ice to lie flat in the trough , poised for the spring to the first pan , a curious apprehension for the safety of Sandy Rowl took hold of him , and he delayed his start .