midnight
For now that he was in the very heart of his `` proving '' he did not know what on earth to do . Dignity ? ... It was hopelessly out of the question . With a monument to his midnight guilt blazing there in the corner -- with Christmas wreaths hung in the windows to confound the Middletons -- he must face the music . Feeling very foolish , he cleared his throat and essayed to speak , paralyzed into silence again by the unexpected evolution of a hoarse croak so horribly un-first-citizen that it frightened him . -LSB- Illustration -RSB- Jimsy broke the staring silence . `` Uncle Ab , '' he quivered , `` ye never -- ye never went an ' done all that fur me ! ''