midnight
At one of these doors , sitting sidewise , so that he could watch in or out , sat Joseph . All night the man on the sheepskins spoke to the blackened thatch above him of the siege of Jerusalem and the treachery of Julian of Ephesus . He read letters from Costobarus and instructed Aquila over and over again . Then he tossed a coin and spent hours counting the hairs in the long locks that fell from the shining head of the moon down upon his breast , at midnight . At times the boy , with the exquisite beauty of sleep on his heavy lids , would creep over from his vigil at the door and lay his cool hand on the sick man 's forehead . And the sick man would speak in a low controlled voice , saying : `` Naaman being a leper , my friend , why was not the law fulfilled against him ? '' But the soothing influence of that touch did not endure .