four o'clock in the afternoon
After breakfast , the livery-stable man came with the carriage , which he had got mended , and Frank started home with his brother once more . But they had sixteen miles to go before they would reach the Boy 's Town , and the carriage had been so badly shattered , or else the driver was so much afraid of the horses , that he would not let them go at more than a walk . Frank was anxious to get home on his father 's account ; still he would rather get home safe , and he did not try to hurry the driver , for fear they might not get home at all . It was four o'clock in the afternoon when they stopped at his father 's house . His older-younger brother , and the hired girl , whom his mother had got to keep house while she was gone on her visit , came out and took his little brother in ; and the girl told Frank his father had just been there to see whether he had got back . Then he knew that his father must have been as anxious as he had been afraid he was . He did not wait to go inside ; he only kicked off the shoes he wore to the city and started off for his father 's office as fast as his bare feet could carry him .