four o'clock
And the young schoolmaster , who seemed exempt from frailty while he guarded like a sentinel that lone outpost of the alphabet -- he too has long since joined the choir invisible of the immortal dead . But there is something left of him though more than a century has passed away : something that has wandered far down the course of time to us like the faint summer fragrance of a young tree long since fallen dead in its wintered forest -- like a dim radiance yet travelling onward into space from an orb turned black and cold -- like an old melody , surviving on and on in the air without any instrument , without any strings . John Gray , the school-master . At four o'clock that afternoon and therefore earlier than usual , he was standing on the hickory block which formed the doorstep of the school-house , having just closed the door behind him for the day . Down at his side , between the thumb and forefinger of one hand , hung his big black hat , which was decorated with a tricoloured cockade , to show that he was a member of the Democratic Society of Lexington , modelled after the Democratic Society of Philadelphia and the Jacobin clubs of France . In the open palm of the other lay his big silver English lever watch with a glass case and broad black silk fob . A young fellow of powerful build , lean , muscular ; wearing simply but with gentlemanly care a suit of black , which was relieved around his wrists and neck by linen , snow-white and of the finest quality .