five o'clock
I never saw such a boy -- a miserable little coward , always in mischief and doing things he ought not to do , and running about the place with his whims and fads . I wish you 'd send him right away , I do . '' My aunt went out of the room , and I ca n't say she banged the door , but she shut it very hard , leaving me and my uncle face to face staring one at the other . My uncle did not speak for some minutes , but sat poking at his hair with the waxy end of his pipe , for he was a man who smoked a great deal after dinner ; the mornings he spent in his garden , being out there as early as five o'clock in the summer and paying very little attention to the rain . He was a very amiable , mild-tempered man , who had never had any children , in fact he did not marry till quite late in life ; when I remember my poor father saying that it was my aunt married my uncle , for uncle would never have had the courage to ask her . I say `` my poor father '' , for a couple of years after that marriage , the news came home that he had been lost at sea with the whole of the crew of the great vessel of which he was the surgeon . I remember it all so well ; the terrible blank and trouble that seemed to have come upon our house , with my mother 's illness that followed , and that dreadful day when Uncle Joseph came down-stairs to me in the dining-room , and seating himself by the fire filled and lit his pipe , took two or three puffs , and then threw the pipe under the grate , let his head go down upon his hands , and cried like a child .