midnight
`` Good-by , Si . God keep you for me , safe through battles and dangers . '' She turned away to hide her bursting tears . It was astonishing how quick midnight came . When the clock striking 12 smote the ears of the family , nobody had said , heard or asked one tithe of what he or she was burning eager to , yet the parting was but a little more than two brief hours away . With a heart heavier even than when she parted from her boy for the first time , Mrs. Klegg arose , and sought to distract her thoughts by collecting as big a package as they could carry of the choicest eatables . How often she stopped to cry softly into her apron not even the girls knew , for she was resolved to keep up a brave front , especially before Si , and would carefully wash all traces of tears from her face , and clear the sobs from her throat before re-entering the room where he was .