nine o'clock
But when the group pairs off , then Mr. Recorder pricks up his ears and works with both hands , one busy taking what the youngsters say , and the other busy with what they would like to say . And shame be it upon the courage of youth that what they would like to say fills the larger book . And marvel of marvels , often the book that holds what the boys would say is merely a copy of what the girls would like to hear , and so much of the work is saved to the angel . It was nine o'clock when the limping boy and the slender girl followed the tall youth and the plump little girl down the walk from the Culpepper home through the gate and into the main road . And the couple that walked behind took the opposite direction from that which they took who walked ahead . Yet when John and Ellen reached the river and were seated on the mill-dam , where the roar of the falling water drowned their voices , Ellen Culpepper spoke first : `` That looks like them over on the bridge . I can see Molly , and Bob 's hat about three feet above her . ''