midnight
We stopped a little at the house of a Mr. Cutts , a man of some note in these parts ; but he being from home , and one of the children sick with a quinsy , we went up the river to Strawberry Bank , where we tarried over night . The woman who entertained us had lost her husband in the war , and having to see to the ordering of matters out of doors in this busy season of harvest , it was no marvel that she did neglect those within . I made a comfortable supper of baked pumpkin and milk , and for lodgings I had a straw bed on the floor , in the dark loft , which was piled wellnigh full with corn - ears , pumpkins , and beans , besides a great deal of old household trumpery , wool , and flax , and the skins of animals . Although tired of my journey , it was some little time before I could get asleep ; and it so fell out , that after the folks of the house were all abed , and still , it being , as I judge , nigh midnight , I chanced to touch with my foot a pumpkin lying near the bed , which set it a-rolling down the stairs , bumping hard on every stair as it went . Thereupon I heard a great stir below , the woman and her three daughters crying out that the house was haunted . Presently she called to me from the foot of the stairs , and asked me if I did hear anything . I laughed so at all this , that it was some time before I could speak ; when I told her I did hear a thumping on the stairs .