midnight
-- _ any _ of you ! '' `` Well , it does beat -- '' `` Laws alive , I never -- '' `` So help me , I would n't a be -- '' `` _ House _ - thieves as well as -- '' `` Goodnessgracioussakes , I 'd a ben afeard to live in sich a -- '' `` ` Fraid to _ live _ ! -- why , I was that scared I das n't hardly go to bed , or get up , or lay down , or _ set _ down , Sister Ridgeway . Why , they 'd steal the very -- why , goodness sakes , you can guess what kind of a fluster I was in by the time midnight come last night . I hope to gracious if I war n't afraid they 'd steal some o ' the family ! I was just to that pass I did n't have no reasoning faculties no more . It looks foolish enough _ now _ , in the daytime ; but I says to myself , there 's my two poor boys asleep , ` way up stairs in that lonesome room , and I declare to goodness I was that uneasy ' t I crep ' up there and locked 'em in !