midnight
His loving family -- minus Tilly and Jacky , who were abed -- encircled the table , variously employed ; and George stood at his elbow , fastening up a pair of bookshelves of primitive construction , coupled together by means of green cord . While thus domestically employed , they heard a loud , steady thumping outside . The Sudberrys were well acquainted by this time with that sound and its cause . At first it had filled Mrs Sudberry with great alarm , raising in her feeble mind horrible reminiscences of tales of burglary and midnight murder . After suffering inconceivable torments of apprehension for two nights , the good lady could stand it no longer , and insisted on her husband going out to see what it could be . As the sound appeared to come from the cottage , or off-shoot from the White House , in which the McAllisters lived , he naturally went there , and discovered that the noise was caused by the stoutest of the two servant-girls . This sturdy lass , whose costume displayed a pair of enormous ankles to advantage , and exhibited a pair of arms that might have made a prize-fighter envious , was standing in the middle of the floor , with a large iron pot before her and a thick wooden pin in her hands , with the end of which she was , according to her own statement , `` champin ' tatties . ''