midnight
A fine , upstanding lad he was , with a glib English tongue that readily sold his wares , and which , along with a handsome , merry face , helped him with ease into the good graces of those whom he familiarly knew as `` the lasses . '' Dandy Jim had had many a flirtation , but now he felt that his roving days were nearly past . He was seriously thinking of matrimony . `` She 's a bonny lass , '' thought he contemplatively , dwelling on the charms of the young cook at the farmhouse he had left just past midnight , `` bonny and thrifty , and as fond o ' a laugh as I am mysel . That bit shop as ye come out o ' Hexham , with red roses growing up the front o ` t , and fine-scented laylock bushes at the back , that would do us fine ... '' And so , safely wrapped up in happy plans and in thoughts of his apple-cheeked lady-love , Jim manfully splashed through puddles and tramped through mud , conscience free , and fearful of nothing in earth or out of it . The graveyard at Eckford possessed no horrors for him . `` Bogles , '' quoth he , `` what 's a bogle ?