nine o'clock
Why , if you were a soldier 's wife , would you hear all the bullets flying ? There , the last red has faded , and I hear the children 's voices ! Come in ; come in out of the dark . '' It was nine o'clock of a November morning when a coach , driven out from Richmond , passed a country tavern and a blacksmith 's shop , and , turning from the main road , went jolting through a stubble-field down to the steep and grassy bank of the James . It was a morning fine and clear , with the hoar frost yet upon the ground . The trees , of which there were many , were bare , saving the oaks , which yet held a rusty crimson . In the fields the crows were cawing , and beyond the network of branch and bough the river flashed and murmured among its multitude of islets .