midnight
There is not much sleeping done in the flood district during a spring flood . The gas was shut off , and I gave Mr. Reynolds and the Ladleys each a lamp . I sat in the back room that I had made into a temporary kitchen , with a candle , and with a bedquilt around my shoulders . The water rose fast in the lower hall , but by midnight , at the seventh step , it stopped rising and stood still . I always have a skiff during the flood season , and as the water rose , I tied it to one spindle of the staircase after another . I made myself a cup of tea , and at one o'clock I stretched out on a sofa for a few hours ' sleep . I think I had been sleeping only an hour or so , when some one touched me on the shoulder and I started up .