about
ten in the evening
All my desire to imitate Peter 's stoicism did n't prevent me from getting occasionally rattled and despondent . The one thing I could do was to keep fit , for I had a notion I might soon want all my bodily strength . I had to keep up my pretence of lameness in the daytime , so I used to take my exercise at night . I would sleep in the afternoon , when Peter had his siesta , and then about ten in the evening , after putting him to bed , I would slip out-of-doors and go for a four or five hours ' tramp . Wonderful were those midnight wanderings . I pushed up through the snow-laden pines to the ridges where the snow lay in great wreaths and scallops , till I stood on a crest with a frozen world at my feet and above me a host of glittering stars . Once on a night of full moon I reached the glacier at the valley head , scrambled up the moraine to where the ice began , and peered fearfully into the spectral crevasses .