midnight
They had asked permission to visit the vicar 's daughter Hedwig , their playmate , who was an unpretending , quiet girl , in whose company he gladly trusted them . Now he thought he would wait till they had all come home . The moonlight drew him out onto the heath . It lay there in midnight silence ; only in the heather a linnet chirped from time to time , as if in its sleep . The wild-pinks bent their red heads , and the golden-rod shone as if it wanted to compete with the moonbeams . Slowly , with hesitating steps , he walked on , sometimes stumbling over a mole-hill or entangling himself in the tendrils of the plants . The dew sparkled before him in shining drops .