half
past four
Thank father for me , please ... . Good-night ... `` Your loving son , `` JOEL . '' The opportunity to inquire regarding Stephen Remsen 's family connections presented itself to Joel on the day preceding the golf tournament and the football game with Westvale . On account of the latter there had been only a half hour of light practice for the two squads , and Joel at half past four had gone to his room to study . But when it came time to puzzle out some problems in geometry Joel found that his paper was used up , and , rather than borrow of his neighbors , he pulled on his cap and started for the village store . October had brought warm weather , and this afternoon , as he went along the maple-bordered road that leads to the post office he found himself dawdling over the dusty grasses and bushes , recognizing old friends and making new ones , as right-minded folks will when the sun is warm and the birds sing beside the way . He watched a tiny chipmunk scamper along the top of the stone wall and disappear in the branches of a maple , looked upward and saw a mass of fluffy white clouds going northward , and thought wistfully of spring and the delights it promised here in the Hudson Valley .