midnight
`` After supper the surgeon took a sleep , saying we would start back to town by two o'clock , so as to be there by daylight . He gave instructions to call him in case Bill awoke , but he hoped the boy would take a good sleep . As I had left my horse in town , I was expected to go back with him . Shortly after midnight the fellow awoke , so we aroused the doctor , who reported him doing well . The old Doc sat by his bed for an hour and told him all kinds of stories . He had been a surgeon in the Confederate army , and from the drift of his talk you 'd think it was impossible to kill a man without cutting off his head . '' ` Now take a young fellow like you , ' said the doctor to his patient , ` if he was all shot to pieces , just so the parts would hang together , I could fix him up and he would get well .