about
eleven o'clock
The next morning at about nine-thirty occurred Peter Vandyne 's introduction into real life . He took it gallantly with his head up and swimming for shore . The day was one of young May 's maiden efforts offered with a soft smile of tender sunshine and in a flutter of bird wing and apple-blow . Of course , Sam had told me not to bring Peter out to The Briers until about eleven o'clock , because he wanted to do some farm housekeeping , as I afterward found out . But half past nine was the very limit of my endurance , and I sat and fidgeted with the wheel while mother and Eph packed us up with the inevitable basket for Byrd plus the also inevitable `` little ones '' that daddy somehow managed to find for him . These young were three small kittens , attended in their blindness by a black-and-white-spotted mother cat , all safely laced into a large basket and by that time resigned to their fate . I did n't mean to be disrespectful to dear Peter in my thoughts , but somehow they reminded me of him as he was led to farm life ; and I laughed outright as Eph gave Peter a parting pat and Redwheels and me a shove , while mother called after us not to forget the sarsaparilla .