midnight
But she could not see clearly , because the window was streaked with rain . And in the morning the old broken tiles were found scattered about the street , and there were new ones on the roof , and the old house has never leaked to this blessed day . `` As soon as mass was over Frau Martha told the priest what had happened , and he said it was not Pelz-Nickel , but , without doubt , St. Castor or St. Florian . Then she went to the market and told Frau Bridget all about it ; and Frau Bridget said , that , two nights before , Hans Claus , the cooper , had heard a great pounding in his shop , and in the morning found new hoops on all his old hogsheads ; and that a man with a lantern and a ladder had been seen riding out of town at midnight on a donkey , and that the same night the old windmill , at Kloster St. Thomas , had been mended up , and the old gate of the churchyard at Feldkirche made as good as new , though nobody knew how the man got across the river . Then Frau Martha went down to the Rheinkrahn and told all thesestories over again ; and the old ferryman of Fahr said he could tell something about it ; for , the very night that the churchyard-gate was mended , he was lying awake in his bed , because he could not sleep , and he heard a loud knocking at the door , and somebody calling to him to get up and set him over the river . And when he got up , he saw a man down by the river with a lantern and a ladder ; but as he was going down to him , the man blew out the light , and it was so dark he could not see who he was ; and his boat was old and leaky , and he was afraid to set him over in the dark ; but the man said he must be in Andernach that night ; and so he set him over . And after they had crossed the river , he watched the man , till he came to an image of the Holy Virgin , and saw him put the ladder against the wall , and go up and light his lamp , and then walk along the street .