midnight
I sat up and took notice then , partly because the star really had stopped instead of burning out the way a falling star seems to do , partly because anything that excites Doc Shull that much is something to think about . We watched the star like two cats at a mouse-hole , but it did n't move again . After a while a smaller one did , though , and later in the night a whole procession of them streaked across the sky and fell into place around the first one , forming a pattern that did n't make any sense to us . They stopped moving around midnight and we went to bed , but neither of us got to sleep right away . `` Maybe we ought to look for another interest in life ourselves instead of drumming up one for Joey , '' Doc said . He meant it as a joke but it had a shaky sound ; `` Something besides getting beered up every night , for instance . '' `` You think we 've got the d.t. 's from drinking _ beer _ ? ''