nine o'clock
He announced that Billy Downs had helped catch them and was going to stay to supper to help eat them . Billy usually stayed to supper three or four times a week , and on the nights when he was not there Norman was at his house . The two boys were inseparable , and a pleasant intimacy had grown up between the families . That night as usual , he went home at nine o'clock , but came running back almost immediately , bareheaded and breathless . His mother had been taken suddenly ill . The only doctor in the place had been called to a case on the other side of the mountain , and nobody knew when he would be home . His father and Sara were nearly scared stiff , they were so frightened , and would n't Mrs. Ware please come and tell them what to do ?