eleven o'clock
When all was over , and the last ribbons tied , the hundreds of little boxes were stacked in careful piles on a shelf of the inner closet of the doctor 's office to wait till they were wanted , -- an arrangement which naughty Clover pronounced eminently suitable , since there should always be a doctor close at hand where there was so much wedding-cake . But before all this was accomplished , came what Katy , in imitation of one of Miss Edgeworth 's heroines , called `` The Day of Happy Letters . '' The arrival of the morning boat with letters and newspapers from the East was the great event of the day in Burnet . It was due at eleven o'clock ; and everybody , consciously or unconsciously , was on the lookout for it . The gentlemen were at the office bright and early , and stood chatting with each other , and fingering the keys of their little drawers till the rattle of the shutter announced that the mail was distributed . Their wives and daughters at home , meanwhile , were equally in a state of expectation , and whatever they might be doing kept ears and eyes on the alert for the step on the gravel and the click of the latch which betokened the arrival of the family news-bringer . Doctors can not command their time like other people , and Dr. Carr was often detained by his patients , and made late for the mail , so it was all the pleasanter a surprise when on the great day of the cake-baking he came in earlier than usual , with his hands quite full of letters and parcels .