midnight
Their property all gone , they had been reduced to the condition of loafers , without stake in the community . Having no farms of their own to work on , and the demand for laborers being limited , they had nothing to do all day but to lounge around the tavern , drinking when they could get drinks , sneering at the silk stockings , and debating how further to discomfit them . The other element of the mob , the most mischievous , although not so seriously formidable , was composed of boys and half-grown youths , who less out of malice against the court party , than out of mere love of frolic , availed themselves to the utmost of the opportunity to play off pranks on the richer class of citizens . Bands of them ranged the streets from twilight till midnight , robbing orchards , building bonfires out of fences , opening barns and letting the cows into the gardens , stealing the horses for midnight races , afterwards leaving them to find their way home as they could , tying strings across the streets to trip wayfarers up , stoning windows , and generally making life a burden for their victims by an ingenious variety of petty outrages . Nor were the persons even of the unpopular class always spared . In the daytime it was tolerably safe for one of them to go abroad , but after dark , let him beware of unripe apples and overripe eggs . For the most part the silk stockings kept their houses in the evening , as much for their own protection as for that of their families , and the more prudent of them sat in the dark until bedtime , owing to the fact that lighted windows were a favorite mark with the boys .