midnight
For one hundred years his spirit has haunted the forest , and it is said that he has helped many to become rich , at the cost of their poor souls , of which I would rather not say any more . This much is certain , that on such stormy nights as this he is up in the Pine-grove , where no one fells trees , selecting the biggest pines . And my father has seen him take hold of one , four to five feet in thickness , and snap it as one would a reed . This is his gift to those who turn from the straight path to go to him ; at midnight they carry their timber to the water , and fare away on it into Holland . Oh , if I were only king and lord of Holland , I would send him to the bottom with grape-shot ; for every ship , the hull of which contains one single beam of Dutch Michael 's felling , must come to grief . And that is the reason why one hears of so many shipwrecks ; how otherwise could a fine , strong ship , as big as a church , sink in the open sea ? Every time Dutch Michael fells a pine on a stormy night in the Black Forest , one of his old ones is sprung from the bottom of some ship , the water rushes in , and that ship with all on board is lost .