midnight
To stoop , to break the vine , and to secure the melon were an instant 's work ; but as she bent , the high corn before her waved violently and a big farmer-looking man in a slouch hat and shocking old coat sprang out and seized her by the arm , with a grip not painful but sickeningly firm , exclaiming as he did so : -- `` Wal , I swan ter gosh , if ' t ai n't a gal ! '' Lina dropped the melon , and , barely recalling the peculiar circumstances in time to suppress a scream , made a silent , desperate effort to break away . But her captor 's hold was not even shaken , and he laughed at the impotence of her attempt . In all her petted life she had never been held a moment against her will , and it needed not the added considerations that this man was a coarse , unknown boor , the place retired , the time midnight , and herself in the position of a criminal , to give her a feeling of abject terror so great as to amount to positive nausea , as she realized her utter powerlessness in his hands . `` So you 've been a-stealin ' my melons , hey ? '' he demanded gruffly . The slight shake with which the question was enforced deprived her of the last vestige of dignity and self-assertion .