midnight
His health is none of the best , and he wears a quantity of iron-gray hair , which shades his face and gives it rather a worn appearance ; but we consider him quite a young fellow notwithstanding ; and if a youthful spirit , surviving the roughest contact with the world , confers upon its possessor any title to be considered young , then he is a mere child . The only interruptions to his careless cheerfulness are on a wet Sunday , when he is apt to be unusually religious and solemn , and sometimes of an evening , when he has been blowing a very slow tune on the flute . On these last-named occasions he is apt to incline towards the mysterious , or the terrible . As a specimen of his powers in this mood , I refer my readers to the extract from the clock-case which follows this paper : he brought it to me not long ago at midnight , and informed me that the main incident had been suggested by a dream of the night before . His apartments are two cheerful rooms looking towards the garden , and one of his great delights is to arrange and rearrange the furniture in these chambers , and put it in every possible variety of position . During the whole time he has been here , I do not think he has slept for two nights running with the head of his bed in the same place ; and every time he moves it , is to be the last . My housekeeper was at first well-nigh distracted by these frequent changes ; but she has become quite reconciled to them by degrees , and has so fallen in with his humour , that they often consult together with great gravity upon the next final alteration .