four o'clock
Perhaps you can think of a Mr. Hapford living somewhere in the neighborhood . '' He sat down , and , after a pondering silence , in which he had remained with his head fallen upon his breast , `` My name is Jonathan Tinker , '' he said , with the unaffected air which had already impressed the contributor , and as if he felt that some form of introduction was necessary , `` and the girl that I want to find is Julia Tinker . '' Then he added , resuming the eventful personal history which the listener exulted , while he regretted , to hear : `` You see , I shipped first to Liverpool , and there I heard from my family ; and then I shipped again for Hong-Kong , and after that I never heard a word : I seemed to miss the letters everywhere . This morning , at four o'clock , I left my ship as soon as she had hauled into the dock , and hurried up home . The house was shut , and not a soul in it ; and I did n't know what to do , and I sat down on the doorstep to wait till the neighbors woke up , to ask them what had become of my family . And the first one come out he told me my wife had been dead a year and a half , and the baby I 'd never seen , with her ; and one of my boys was dead ; and he did n't know where the rest of the children was , but he 'd heard two of the little ones was with a family in the city . '' The man mentioned these things with the half-apologetic air observable in a certain kind of Americans when some accident obliges them to confess the infirmity of the natural feelings .