midnight
The domestic wars were discussions of knotty points in theology . The concerns of the parish and the merits of the minister were the weightiest affairs , and a church reproof the heaviest calamity . The strifes of the parent country , though they sometimes occasioned a levy among the sons of the husbandmen , never brought an enemy over their border . No fears of midnight ruffians disturbed the sweetest slumber , and the best house required no fastening but a latch , lifted by a string . Happiness was enjoyed unconsciously . Beneath a rugged exterior , humanity wore its sweetest smile . For a long time there was hardly a lawyer in the land .