midnight
announced Buster Beggs . `` The biggest yet . '' `` Say , that puts me in mind of a story -- '' began Shadow , but what he wanted to tell was lost in a tooting of horns and a clacking of rattles that lasted until Oak Hall was reached . The celebration that night was a grand affair , and Doctor Clay allowed the students to remain out until midnight . Many bonfires were lighted , and the boys danced around , sang songs , and played many practical jokes on each other and on Horsehair and Pop Swingly . Shadow was in his element , and was permitted to tell a dozen or more of his yarns , much to his own satisfaction if not of his listeners . The only boys who felt blue were Nat Poole and the lads who had played against Lemington and then been put off the eleven .