night about nine o'clock
`` I hope you 'll be ready , Martin , '' answered the father , `` even if I ai n't . '' The place where Martin lived was a small settlement distant from town . Martin 's father , Mr. Colver , not only three days in the week drove the stage , but other days acted as a sort of expressman , bringing freight in a large wagon over the miles from town . One night about nine o'clock , Mr. Colver was on the long , lonely road coming toward home . He had a very heavy load on his wagon . The wheels scraped on the wagon bottom , and the team went with a heavy , dragging sound . As the heavy wagon came opposite a clump of white blossoming buckeye trees , one of the fore wheels of the dragging wagon suddenly gave way and fell off .