10:30
Your respectful and loving daughter , Lena . Tommy was still waiting faithfully when the letter was concluded , and when Lena dropped it out she saw him pick it up and start up the steep hillside . Without undressing she blew out the candle and curled herself upon the mattress on the floor . At 10:30 o'clock old man Ballinger came out of his house in his stocking feet and leaned over the gate , smoking his pipe . He looked down the big road , white in the moonshine , and rubbed one ankle with the toe of his other foot . It was time for the Fredericksburg mail to come pattering up the road . Old man Ballinger had waited only a few minutes when he heard the lively hoofbeats of Fritz 's team of little black mules , and very soon afterward his covered spring wagon stood in front of the gate .