seven A.M.
The fifth of June , 1917 , was set , as you remember , for the registration of all men in the country over twenty-one and under thirty-one for the draft . I was twenty-three , living in this house with my father and mother , both dead before the war ended . Being outside of the city , the polling place where I was due to register was three miles off , at Hiawatha . I registered in the morning ; the polls were open from seven A.M. to nine P.M. My mother drove me over , and the road was being mended , and , as happened in those days in the country , half a mile of it was almost impassable . There were no adjustable lift-roads invented then . We got through the ruts and stonework , but it was hard going , and we came home by a detour through the city rather than pass again that beastly half mile . That night was dark and stormy , with rain at intervals , and as we sat in this room , reading , the three of us -- '' The Judge paused and gazed a moment at the faces in the lamplight , at the chairs where his guests sat .