midnight
And all change , to the home-staying heart , can be so abysmally upsetting ! ... We were a somewhat disheveled and intimidated flock when we emerged from our train and found Duncan awaiting us with an amazingly big touring-car which , as he explained with a short laugh at my gape of wonder , the Barcona Mines would pay for in a week . `` It 's no piker you 're pulling with now , '' he exclaimed as we climbed stiff and awkward into that deep-upholstered grandeur on wheels . He said that the children had grown but would have to be togged out with some new duds -- little knowing how I had stayed up until long past midnight mending and pressing and doing my best to make my bucolic offspring presentable . And he told me it was _ some _ city I had come to , as I 'd very soon see for myself . And it was _ some _ shack he 'd corralled for his family , he added with a chuckle of pride . I tried to be interested in the skyscrapers he showed me along Eighth Avenue , and the Palliser , and the concreted subway , and the Rockies , in the distance , with the wine-glow on their snow-clad peaks .