twenty minutes past six
`` It serves to keep the mosquitoes off , '' she said , and a moment later it occurred to my slow mind that she spoke of the penny-royal lotion . `` I do n't know sometimes but William 's kind of poetical , '' she continued , in her gentlest voice . `` You 'd think if anything could cure him of it , ' t would be the fish business . '' It was only twenty minutes past six on a summer morning , but we both sat down to rest as if the activities of the day were over . Mrs. Todd rocked gently for a time , and seemed to be lost , though not poorly , like Macbeth , in her thoughts . At last she resumed relations with her actual surroundings . `` I shall now put my lobsters on .