midnight
They was setting around , some of them talking a little , in a low voice , and all of them fidgety and uneasy , but trying to look like they war n't ; but I knowed they was , because they was always taking off their hats , and putting them on , and scratching their heads , and changing their seats , and fumbling with their buttons . I war n't easy myself , but I did n't take my hat off , all the same . I did wish Aunt Sally would come , and get done with me , and lick me , if she wanted to , and let me get away and tell Tom how we 'd overdone this thing , and what a thundering hornet 's - nest we 'd got ourselves into , so we could stop fooling around straight off , and clear out with Jim before these rips got out of patience and come for us . At last she come and begun to ask me questions , but I COULD N'T answer them straight , I did n't know which end of me was up ; because these men was in such a fidget now that some was wanting to start right NOW and lay for them desperadoes , and saying it war n't but a few minutes to midnight ; and others was trying to get them to hold on and wait for the sheep-signal ; and here was Aunty pegging away at the questions , and me a-shaking all over and ready to sink down in my tracks I was that scared ; and the place getting hotter and hotter , and the butter beginning to melt and run down my neck and behind my ears ; and pretty soon , when one of them says , `` I 'M for going and getting in the cabin FIRST and right NOW , and catching them when they come , '' I most dropped ; and a streak of butter come a-trickling down my forehead , and Aunt Sally she see it , and turns white as a sheet , and says : `` For the land 's sake , what IS the matter with the child ? He 's got the brain-fever as shore as you 're born , and they 're oozing out ! '' And everybody runs to see , and she snatches off my hat , and out comes the bread and what was left of the butter , and she grabbed me , and hugged me , and says : `` Oh , what a turn you did give me ! and how glad and grateful I am it ai n't no worse ; for luck 's against us , and it never rains but it pours , and when I see that truck I thought we 'd lost you , for I knowed by the color and all it was just like your brains would be if -- Dear , dear , whyd ` nt you TELL me that was what you 'd been down there for , I would n't a cared .