four
o'clock
`` I 'll be ever so much obliged . '' And Allan Jarvis departed for the horse sheds -- a conquered hero ! Mary , tired but enthusiastic , told them all about it as they rode home together , followed at a respectful distance by a dinner-pail laden throng . How she had arrived that morning to find Allan Jarvis the center of a mischief-bent circle ; how she had begun the day by the most exciting shipwreck story she knew ; and how the promise of another story before four o'clock had worked a miracle . They were starved for stories , she said . She thought they needed them more than arithmetic . `` Besides , '' she added , `` probably the Sheridan person knows all about figures .