midnight
The call was answered and a message received , saying that a weather report received by the dispatcher stated that the night would likely be stormy , and my friend was asked to stay up till about one o'clock in the morning , as he might be needed to take a crossing order for two trains at his station . We did not mind staying up , and whiled away the hours in pleasant conversation as we sat as near as we could get to the glowing coal fire . The storm increased and finally settled down into a blizzard . By midnight it was something appalling . There was not a hill , nor even a tree , for scores of miles , to break its force as it dashed against our lonely station . The telegraph wires along the track hummed at intervals loudly enough to be distinctly heard above the shrieks of the wind which buffeted and held high carnival along them . Frozen particles of snow rattled fiercely against the window panes , carried by the relentless wind , which seemed to me to have conceived the demoniacal intention of wrecking our not very stalwart but exceedingly lonely home , out of revenge for daring to break even one jot of its fury as it hurried madly on .