midnight
Her husband raised her head , exposing a face ghastly white , except the long , deforming cicatrice , familiar to all her friends , which no art could ever hide , and which now traversed the pallor of her countenance like a visible curse . Mary Matthews Porfer had the bad luck to be dead . One midsummer night a farmer 's boy living about ten miles from the city of Cincinnati was following a bridle path through a dense and dark forest . He had lost himself while searching for some missing cows , and near midnight was a long way from home , in a part of the country with which he was unfamiliar . But he was a stout-hearted lad , and knowing his general direction from his home , he plunged into the forest without hesitation , guided by the stars . Coming into the bridle path , and observing that it ran in the right direction , he followed it . The night was clear , but in the woods it was exceedingly dark .