midnight
`` Mother has told me that my uncle was all right in his mind while I was a little boy and when my father was alive . But after my father died Uncle Pierre grew kind of queer in his head . My mother thought it was too much study and she advised him to take a rest . But he said he must get his big history written and he kept on writing and burning the midnight oil as college fellows call it , and it made him queerer and queerer every day . `` One day he went to the post-office for his mail . That was when I was about nine years old . When he got back he began to dance around and he caught me by the hands and rushed around the house like a crazy man .