about ten o'clock
When he returned , it was to meet a combined volley of protestations against his foolish project of keeping watch all night , from his father , his mother , and Amy . But he declared it was no use talking ; and where were the gun and the beans ? So they adjourned from the piazza , a lamp was lit , the articles were hunted up , and the gun duly loaded with a good charge of powder and a pint of hard beans . It was about ten o'clock when Arthur , with a parting protest from his mother , went out into the garden , lugging his gun and a big easy-chair , while Amy followed , bringing one or two wraps , and a shocking old overcoat hunted up in the garret , for the chill hours after midnight . The front of Mr. Steele 's lot abutted on one of the pleasantest and most thickly housed streets of the village ; but the lot was deep , and the rear end rested on a road bordered by few houses , and separated from the garden by a rail fence easy to climb over or through . The watermelon patch was located close to this fence , and thus in full view and temptingly accessible from the road . Undoubtedly the human conscience , and especially the boyish article , recognizes a broad difference between the theft of growing crops -- of apples on the trees , for instance , or corn on the stalk , or melons in the field -- and that of other species of property .