midnight
`` I tell you a boy who uses his mother bad is sure to suffer for it some time . I 've seen so many cases that I know there 's such a law that governs the whole world . I thank heaven that I never brought a tear to my mother 's eyes . '' The speaker was Captain Bergen , who was talking to Fred Sanders while the two sat together on the proa , near midnight succeeding the conversation mentioned between Inez and the youth Fred . The latter might have believed , as he had jocosely remarked , that he had captured a small party of missionaries , who were making a dead set at him ; but his feelings had been touched in a most tender manner , and he had done more thinking during the last few hours than in all his previous life . The only one on the proa who was on duty was Fred , who held the steering-oar in place , while the curiously-shaped vessel sped through the water . The sea was very calm and the wind so slight that they were in reality going slower than at any previous time , and the task of guiding the boat was hardly a task at all .