Half
past nine
`` Eight miles to where ? '' `` Sanpritchit , '' replied I. `` That 's what they told me . '' `` Oh , that 's by water , '' said the driver ; `` but this road 's got to go around the end of the bay , and after that ` way round the top of the big marsh , and that makes it a good seventeen miles to Sanpritchit . Half past nine ! Why , the boss told me , if I did n't get there before twelve , I must stop somewhere and water the mare and give her some oats . I 've got a bag of them back there . '' I sat dumb .