About ten o'clock
It is a pain to me to this day , to remember how that old German Lear raged and wept and howled around the stage , with never a response from that hushed house , never a single outburst till the act was ended . To me there was something unspeakably uncomfortable in the solemn dead silences that always followed this old person 's tremendous outpourings of his feelings . I could not help putting myself in his place -- I thought I knew how sick and flat he felt during those silences , because I remembered a case which came under my observation once , and which -- but I will tell the incident : One evening on board a Mississippi steamboat , a boy of ten years lay asleep in a berth -- a long , slim-legged boy , he was , encased in quite a short shirt ; it was the first time he had ever made a trip on a steamboat , and so he was troubled , and scared , and had gone to bed with his head filled with impending snaggings , and explosions , and conflagrations , and sudden death . About ten o'clock some twenty ladies were sitting around about the ladies ' saloon , quietly reading , sewing , embroidering , and so on , and among them sat a sweet , benignant old dame with round spectacles on her nose and her busy knitting-needles in her hands . Now all of a sudden , into the midst of this peaceful scene burst that slim-shanked boy in the brief shirt , wild-eyed , erect-haired , and shouting , `` Fire , fire ! JUMP AND RUN , THE BOAT 'S AFIRE AND THERE AI N'T A MINUTE TO LOSE ! '' All those ladies looked sweetly up and smiled , nobody stirred , the old lady pulled her spectacles down , looked over them , and said , gently : `` But you must n't catch cold , child .