midnight
Whatcha makin ' ? '' Mr. Sawyer reddened as any man may whose weakness has been unexpectedly detected by a boy in an acre of night-shirt . `` No one , '' he began icily , '' _ no _ one -- not even Mrs. Sawyer presumes to come beyond that threshold '' -- he broke off and frowned impatiently , feeling his power of aloofness threatened by something in Jimsy 's eager stare which claimed a kinship of interest ... . There was an alarming suggestion of intimacy anyway in a midnight scene with a tailless dog , a boy clad in your own night-shirt -- and an inferential person with an eye by the name of Sweeny ... . Why did a ridiculous frozen sense of guilt impede his tongue now when rebuke was imperative ? ... Why on earth had a look of relief and understanding supplanted the puzzled friendliness of Jimsy 's supper-time stare ? ... So might a dog look who had waggled in friendly perplexity at the foot of a flawless statue only to find that the statue held in its hand a lowly but perfectly comprehensible bone ... and the dog 's attitude of course toward the flawless statue would never be quite the same -- nor -- `` James , '' said the first citizen hoarsely , `` go to bed ! ''