midnight
Listen to his words : the day or the hour knoweth no man ; and are you ready to face the judgment-seat of Christ ? Oh , be not deceived , be not deceived ! Whatsoever a man soweth , that shall he also reap . '' It was long past midnight when the knot of men about Tom Davis 's door dispersed ; the excitement of the fire faded before that frank interest in death , which such people have no hesitation in expressing . Society veils it with decent reserve , and calls it morbid and vulgar , yet it is ineradicably human , and circumstances alone decide whether it shall be confessed . But when the preacher came out of the house , all was quiet and deserted . The snow , driving in white sheets down the mountains , was tinged with a faint glow , where , in a blinding mist it whirled across the yards ; it had come too late to save the lumber , but it had checked and deadened the flames , so that the few unburned planks only smouldered slowly into ashes .