nine o'clock in the
evening
`` Ca n't you people get these traps together without all yelling at once ? You will have mother so used up she ca n't start . '' Mrs. Birch smiled at her tall son from the easy chair where she had been placed ten minutes before , her family protesting that they could finish the numberless small tasks yet to be done . It was nine o'clock in the evening , and it lacked but an hour of train-time . They all looked at the slender figure in the easy chair . They had learned in these last two weeks to take note of their mother 's appearance as , with easy confidence in her exhaustless strength , they had never done before . Since the night when they had learned that she was not quite well , they had discovered for themselves the delicacy of the smiling face , the thinness of the graceful body , the many small signs by which those who run may read the evidences of lessened vitality , if their eyes are once opened .