nine o'clock
The mother shrivelled and faded ; Abbie herself being over thirty -- not so fresh-looking as she had been -- not so pretty -- never had been very pretty . Her mother knew , too , how hard she had always struggled to do something better ; how she had studied drawing at the normal school when she was preparing to be a teacher ; and how she had spent weeks in the elaboration of wall-paper patterns , which she had sent to the Decorative Art Society in Boston , only to have them returned to her in the same wrapper in which they had been mailed , with the indorsement `` not suitable . '' That 's why she did n't think she was going to be postmistress long . Far into the night these talks would continue-long after the other neighbors had gone to bed -- nine o'clock maybe -- sometimes as late as ten -- an unheard-of thing in Taylorsville , where everybody was up at daylight . Then one day an extraordinary thing happened -- extraordinary so far as her modest post-office was concerned . A poster appeared on the wall of her office -- a huge card , big as the top of a school desk , bearing in large type this legend : `` Rock Creek Copper Company . Keep & Co. , Agents , '' and at the bottom , in small type , directions as to the best way of securing the stock before the lists were closed .