two o'clock
It was just one of those places where any day the Spirit of all Nature might start up in one of those white gaps which separate the trees and rocks . But though I sat a long time waiting , hoping -- Pan did not come . They were all gone from the stable , when I went back to the farm , except the bearded nurse , and one tall fellow , who might have been the `` Dying Gaul , '' as he crouched there in the straw ; and the mare was sleeping -- her head between her nurse 's knees . That night I woke at two o'clock , to find it bright as day , almost , with moonlight coming in through the flimsy curtains . And , smitten with the feeling which comes to us creatures of routine so rarely -- of what beauty and strangeness we let slip by without ever stretching out hand to grasp it -- I got up , dressed , stole downstairs , and out . Never was such a night of frozen beauty , never such dream-tranquillity . The wind had dropped , and the silence was such that one hardly liked to tread even on the grass .