midnight
Only Pap Himes thrived . His trouble was rheumatism , and the hot days were his best . Of evenings he would sit on the porch in his broad , rush-bottomed chair , the big yellow cat on his knees , and smoke his pipe and , if he cared to do so , banter unkindly with the girls on the steps . Early in the season as it was , the upstairs rooms were terribly hot ; and sometimes the poor creatures sat or lay on the porch till well past midnight . Across the gulch were songs and the strumming of banjos or guitars , where the young fellows at the inn waked late . The rich people on top of the hill were beginning to make their preparations to flit to the seashore or mountains . Lydia Sessions left for two weeks , promising to return in June , and the Uplift work drooped , neglected .