midnight
They did not know that he had written two big books about the birds and insects he loved so well , or that he could tell them facts more wonderful than fairy tales about these little wild creatures of the woodland . To-night he had read later than usual , and his fire was nearly out . He was too poor to keep a servant , so when he found that the coal-hod was empty he had to go out to the kitchen to fill it himself . That is why he saw something that happened soon after midnight , while everybody else in the valley was sound asleep . Over in the cabin by the spring-house where the boys had left the tramp and Jonesy , a puff of smoke went curling around the roof . Then a tongue of flame shot up through the cedars , and another and another until the sky was red with an angry glare . It lighted up the eastern window-panes of the servants ' cottage , but the inmates , tired from the unusual serving of the evening before , slept on .