noon
G ' - by . '' On Friday Scattergood was invisible in Coldriver village , for he had started away before dawn , driving his sway-backed horse over the mountain roads to the southward . He notified nobody of his going , unless it was Mandy , his wife , and even to her he did not make apparent his errand . Before noon he was in Bailey and stopping before the small white house in which Mrs. Patterson managed by ingenuity to fit in a husband , a mother-in-law , an aged father , seven children of her own , the Conroy orphan , and a constantly changing number of cats . Nobody could have done it but Mrs. Patterson . The house resembled one of those puzzle boxes containing a number of curiously sawn pieces of wood , which , once removed , can be returned and fitted into place again only by some one who knows the secret . Scattergood entered the house , remained upward of an hour , and then reappeared , followed by Mrs. Patterson , seven children , an old man , and an old woman -- and in his arms was a baby whose lungs gave promise of a healthy manhood .