ten
at night
`` Savvy nothing , '' says Uma , with a kind of disgusted air that she was good at . And that was all the talk we had upon the matter , for I was put out , and Uma took the thing so much as a matter of course that I was fairly ashamed . All day , off and on , now fewer and now more , the fools sat about the west end of my house and across the river , waiting for the show , whatever that was -- fire to come down from heaven , I suppose , and consume me , bones and baggage . But by evening , like real islanders , they had wearied of the business , and got away , and had a dance instead in the big house of the village , where I heard them singing and clapping hands till , maybe , ten at night , and the next day it seemed they had forgotten I existed . If fire had come down from heaven or the earth opened and swallowed me , there would have been nobody to see the sport or take the lesson , or whatever you like to call it . But I was to find they had n't forgot either , and kept an eye lifting for phenomena over my way . I was hard at it both these days getting my trade in order and taking stock of what Vigours had left .