midnight
`` A man goes his own gait , and , if he wo n't go to heaven , he _ wo n't _ , and the good God himself ca n't help it . He throws the shining gates all open wide , and he never shut them on any poor fellow as would have entered in , and he never , never will . '' Which I thought was sensible of the parson , and very prettily put . There 's Molly frying flapjacks now , and flapjacks wo n't wait for no man , you know , no more than time and tide , else I should have talked till midnight , very like , to tell the time we made on that trip home , and how green the harbor looked a sailing up , and of Molly and the baby coming down to meet me in a little boat that danced about -LRB- for we cast a little down the channel -RRB- , and how she climbed up a laughing and a crying all to once , about my neck , and how the boy had grown , and how when he ran about the deck -LRB- the little shaver had his first pair of boots on that very afternoon -RRB- I bethought me of the other time , and of Molly 's words , and of the lad we 'd left behind us in the purple days . Just as we were hauling up , I says to my wife : `` Who 's that old lady setting there upon the lumber , with a gray bunnet , and a gray ribbon on her cap ? '' For there was an old lady there , and I saw the sun all about her , and all on the blazing yellow boards , and I grew a little dazed and dazzled . `` I do n't know , '' said Molly , catching onto me a little close .