midnight
You get me some newspapers , and I 'll wrap 'em up . '' Scott took from his pocket a folded copy of the Riverbend `` Messenger '' and began laboriously to wrap up one of the bouquets . When we left the church door he bore three large newspaper bundles , carrying them as carefully as if they had been so many newly frosted wedding-cakes , and left Nell and me to shift for ourselves as we floundered along the snow-burdened sidewalk . Although it was after midnight , lights were shining from many of the little wooden houses , and the roofs and shrubbery were so deep in snow that Riverbend looked as if it had been tucked down into a warm bed . The companies of people , all coming from church , tramping this way and that toward their homes and calling `` Good night '' and `` Merry Christmas '' as they parted company , all seemed to us very unusual and exciting . When we got home , Mrs. Deane had a cold supper ready , and Jud Deane had already taken off his shoes and fallen to on his fried chicken and pie . He was so proud of his pretty daughter that he must give her her Christmas presents then and there , and he went into the sleeping-chamber behind the dining-room and from the depths of his wife 's closet brought out a short sealskin jacket and a round cap and made Nelly put them on .