midnight
I could endure Chains nowhere patiently : and chains at home Where I am free by birthright , not at all . COWPER . Bright and beautiful broke the morning after that night of storm . The weather had cleared up towards midnight , and when the rejoicing sun surveyed the scene , his golden glances fell on a wide expanse of pure , unsullied white . A slight breeze had arisen , which , gently agitating the bent and laden boughs of the evergreens , shook off the fleecy adornment that fell like blossoms from the trees . The air was soft and almost balmy , as is not unfrequently the case even in `` the dead of winter '' in our variable climate , lovelier and dearer for its very variableness , like a capricious beauty , whose smile is the more prized for the pout that precedes it . It was a day to seduce the old man into the sunshine in the stoop on the south side of the house , and to bring out the girls and young men , and swift trotting horses and pungs and jingling bells in gay confusion in the streets .