about midnight
I can seem to hear her voice even now , she was very old , and it quavered and quivered like one of our hill-country dulcimers ! `` Our chant over , grandmother prayed , she prayed extra long that night and our quick night had come down before she had finished . I lit a little lamp , and we went to bed . Then -- '' A shudder passed through her beautiful , reclining frame , as she continued , and her voice had a new note in it , a note of pain : `` It was about midnight . The whole country slept . There were sixteen small houses in our little village . They all huddled close together , -LRB- for once there had been a wall enclosing them -RRB- suddenly there was a sound of gun-fire .