about ten o'clock
They wuz a givin it tew Squire Woodbridge , wen I come by . I guess he wo n't git much sleep ter night , '' and with this information Perez went home again . Dr. Partridge lived at this time on the hill north of the village , and not very far from the parsonage , which made it convenient for him to report promptly to Parson West , when any of his patients had reached that point where spiritual must be substituted for medical ministrations . It was about ten o'clock by the silver dialed clock in the living room of the doctor 's house , when Prudence Fennell knocked at the open kitchen door . `` What do you want , child ? '' said Mrs. Partridge , who was in the kitchen trying to instruct a negro girl how to use her broom of twigs so as to distribute the silver sand upon the floor in the complex wavy figures , which were the pride of the housewife of that day . `` Please , marm , father 's sick , and Mis Hamlin thinks he ought to have the doctor . ''