midnight
There was starlight , but no moon . The engine bell just ceased to toll as they looked forth on the scattered suburb , and at points beheld the Delaware flowing darkly , indicated by occasional lights of vessels reflected upward , and by the very distant lamps on the Camden shore . Most of the houses within the range of vision were small , patched , and irregular , except where the black walls of the even blocks on some principal streets strode through . Scarcely a sound , except the tree frogs droning , disturbed the air , and Kensington basked in the midnight like some sleeping village of the plains , stretching out to the fields of cattle and the savory truck farms . Duff Salter mentally exclaimed : `` Here , like two angels of good or evil , we spy upon the dull old hamlet , where nothing greater has happened than to-night since the Indians bartered their lands away for things of immediate enjoyment . Are not most of these people Indians still , ready to trade away substantial lands of antique title for the playthings of a few brief hours ? Yes , heaven itself was signed away by man and woman for the juices of one forbidden fruit .