twelve o'clock
He tried to recall the names of the various lakes in New Jersey and in the neighboring state of New York , and he recalled a good many , but that did not help him to identify this one . So he started up toward the town in the hope of identifying that . The village petered out toward the lake ; there were but a few houses . It was about eleven or twelve o'clock or after and the good people in the straggling cottages thereabout had put out their lights and retired to slumber before that wicked hour . There was a stillness and gloom about these uninviting , dark houses ; a cheerlessness not to be found in the densest woods . They made Pee-wee feel lost and lonesome , as the dim , silent wilderness could never do . Soon he reached the town , and there in the center of a spacious lawn was something which , in his loneliness and uncertainty , seemed the picture of gloom .