midnight
Before him , on yellowing paper , was old Gid 's name , and at it he slowly shook his head , for fretfully he nursed the consciousness of having for years been the dupe of that man 's humorous rascality . The plantation was productive , the old fellow had gathered many a fine crop , and for his failure to pay rent there could be no excuse , except the apologies devised by his own trickish invention . Year after year , in his appeals for further indulgence , he had set up the plea of vague obligations pressing upon him , some old debt that he was striving to wipe out and from which he would soon be freed ; and then , no longer within the tightening grasp of merciless scoundrels , he would gratefully devote the proceeds of his energies to the discharge of the obligations held so lightly over him by the noblest man on earth . Once he returned from New Orleans , whither he had gone to sell his cotton , with the story that he had been knocked senseless and robbed of his wallet , and in proof of this he produced a newspaper account of the midnight outrage , and exhibited a wound on the head , inflicted by the bludgeon of the footpad . And with such drollery did he recite this story that the Major laughed at him , which meant , of course , that his tenure of the old plantation was not to be disturbed . The memory of this rascally trick came back to the Major as he sat there looking over his papers . He recounted it all as a reminiscence of his own weakness , and he was firmly and almost angrily resolved that this season the old fellow should not waddle from under his obligations .