Six o'clock
Further conversation between himself and other passengers who seemed to know and respect him , showed that he had abandoned his studies in a leading institution , to answer the call of the country -- that mathematics and military science had formed a considerable part of his studies -- that he had had some hopes , when he enlisted , of obtaining the grade of a subaltern officer , when he should succeed in procuring sufficient enlistments -- that by his personal efforts and fervid eloquence he had already succeeded in enlisting more than fifty men for the regiment with which he was connected , and was then on his way to another section of the county to make further efforts in the same direction -- and that he was still a `` full private , '' with a certainty of rising no higher , because he had neither money nor political influence to put him forward . So that this young patriot and soldier , who showed the power and energy of his nature in every glance of his eye and every word he spoke , was to be kept in the lowest position known to the service , and commanded by men who had never heard of a book on military science or tactics , a week before , but who could buy commissions or command a certain number of votes at a town-meeting ! Josephine Harris had studied the current history of the time , enough to know and recognize the picture set before her , and to say , silently and between her set teeth : `` Oh , I wish I was only a man , to start out with a horsewhip and lash these incapables until they howled ! '' Six o'clock , and the stage went rumbling and swaying into the little village of West Falls , which it is hoped that no matter-of-fact reader will attempt to find on the map of Oneida , albeit it has a veritable existence there under another name . It was a cozy little spot , nestled down into the valley of a small stream , half creek and half river , that formed a cataract in the neighborhood and gave it the name . Factories clustered along the stream , making the idle water labor for the benefit of man , and within them whirred the spindle of the cotton or wool spinner and clanked the hammer of the worker in iron and steel . The village itself lay partly in the valley , along the east margin of the stream , and partly climbing the slight range of hills that bounded it still farther eastward .