eleven
o'clock
The play that evening at Town Hall dragged after the fashion of amateur shows . The management of the sets and the properties consumed much time . There were mishaps . One of these accidents had to do with the most ambitious scene of the piece , a real brook -- the main feature of the final , grand tableau when folks were trying to keep awake at eleven o'clock . The brook came babbling down over rocks and was conveyed off-stage by means of a V-shaped spout . There was much merriment when the audience discovered that the brook could be heard running uphill behind the scenes ; two hobble-de-hoy boys were dipping the water with pails from the washboiler at the end of the sluice and lugging it upstairs , where they dumped it into the brook 's fount . The brook 's peripatetic qualities were emphasized when both boys fell off the top of the makeshift stairs and came down over the rocks , pails and all .