midnight
Then , too , there was another pleasant fact . The trip as a trip had been unusual ; never before had he , or any one else , made it under two days -- one for loading and driving into town , and a second for getting rid of the wood and making the return . Yet he himself had been out now only the one day , and he was on his way home . He had whipped and crowded his horses since midnight to just this end . Yet was he not stalled now till morning ? And would not this delay set him back the one day he had gained over his fellow-townsmen ? And would not these same fellow-townsmen rejoice in this opportunity to overtake him -- worse , to leave him behind ?