midnight
Tonight 's the night when the elder blossoms out at midnight , and the cattle kneels down and prays , -- anybody can hear 'em a-lowing and mowing if they stay awake to listen . '' I have a hazy recollection of the English calendar having been changed and set forward eleven days in the middle of the eighteenth century , and of the mass of the people in England and the colonies refusing to accept the new date for Christmas . This survival in the mountain country is indeed remarkable . I sat keeping watch beside Nucky when the clock struck midnight , and got up and went to the window to look and listen . If , in the wintry moonlight , any gaunt , bare stalks put forth miraculous blossoms above the snow , or if reverent cattle knelt and lowed loving welcome to their Lord , my eyes and ears were holden that I did not see and hear ; but I know that it was Real Christmas in my heart as I turned back and saw my child breathing quietly on his bed , a faint color in his pale cheeks again . _ Wednesday . _ Another visit from Blant to Nucky last night .