eleven o'clock
My mother was indisposed and had retired to rest early . Well do I remember that night ; it was the beginning of December , and the weather for some time past had been piercingly cold . The wind howled through the leafless boughs , and there was every appearance of an early and severe winter , as indeed befel . Long before eleven o'clock all was hushed and quiet within the house , and indeed without -LRB- nothing was heard -RRB- , except the cold wind which howled mournfully in gusts . The house was an old farm-house , and we sat in the large kitchen with its stone floor , awaiting the first stroke of the eleventh hour . It struck at last , and then all pale and trembling we hung the garment to dry before the fire which we had piled up with wood , and set the door ajar , for that was an essential point . The door was lofty and opened upon the farmyard , through which there was a kind of thoroughfare , very seldom used , it is true , and at each end of it there was a gate by which wayfarers occasionally passed to shorten the way .