midnight
They suddenly reminded him of the season -- that it was Christmas Eve ; of the sheep which so many years ago beheld the angel of the Lord and the glory of the great light that shone about the shepherds abiding in the fields . Did they follow , he wondered , the shepherds who went to seek for Christ ? Ah , as he paused meditatively beside the rail-fence -- what matter how long ago it was , how far away ! -- he saw those sheep lying about the fields under the vast midnight sky . They lift their sleepy heads . Dawn ? not yet , surely ; and they lay them down again .