the hour of twelve o'clock
`` Now mark me , '' continued the priest , `` if either of you ever brathes a syllable of this , salvation to me , but I 'll read you both out from the althar . Here now help me on with this sack ; it 's for a distressed person in the neighborhood that wants it badly , as you may judge , or I would n't be trudging off with it at this hour of the night . Katty , you go to bed , and let Barney stay up till I come back -- did you mind my words , I repate -- read you both out , if ever a syllable comes to Father Pother 's ears , or anybody 's else 's but our own . '' The servant man accordingly assisted him to raise upon his stout and honest shoulders a short heavy bag of oatmeal , into which he had thrust a large flitch of newly-hung bacon ; and thus loaded , the violent anti-tithe priest bent his way , nearly at the hour of twelve o'clock , to the residence of the Rev. Mr. Goodison , his neighbor . It is necessary to state here , that the glebe-house of that gentleman was situated within about two hundred yards of two crossroads , one of which went by the gate of entrance to it . After a severe trudge , during a night that began now to brighten as the moon rose , Father Anthony found himself approaching the cross-roads in question , and for a moment imagined that he saw his own shadow before him , an impression which soon changed on observing that the shadow , or whatever it was , although loaded much as he himself was , that is to say , with a sack on his shoulders , evidently approached him -- a circumstance which he knew to be an impossibility , and that it must , consequently , be a distinct individual . Having satisfied himself of this , he got under the shade of a hedge , a movement in which he was instantly imitated by the stranger .