nearly
midnight
`` The days wa 'n' t never long enough for Deborah Thayer , '' they said -- and she did not know why herself . There was deep in her heart a plan for the final disposition of these nightly achievements , but she confided it to no one , not even to Rebecca . The blue-and-white coverlid , many a daintily stitched linen garment and lace-edged pillow-slip she destined for Rebecca when she should be wed , although she frowned on Rebecca 's lover and spoke harshly to her of marriage . To-night , while Rebecca lay sobbing in her little bedroom , the mother knitted assiduously until nearly midnight upon a wide linen lace with which to trim dimity curtains for the daughter 's bridal bedstead . Deborah needed no lamplight for this knitting-work ; she was so familiar with it , having knitted yards with her thoughts elsewhere , that she could knit without seeing her needles . So she sat in the deepening dusk and knitted , and heard the laughter and shouts of the boys at play a little way down the road with a deeper pang than Ephraim had ever felt over his own deprivation . She was glad when the gay hubbub ceased and the boys were haled into bed .