midnight
`` Two days . I was never so homesick . The mother was a hardworking woman , toiling from morning to night for her family . One evening she sat up till midnight finishing a pair of mittens for her oldest son . She told him of this the next morning ; but he did not express one word of gratitude . He only said , -- '' ` You might have finished them earlier if you 'd been a mind to ! ' '' `` I would have snatched them right away , '' exclaimed Hatty .