eleven o'clock at night
`` Why ai n't it me ? '' returned Ephraim , with a manful air , swaggering back his shoulders at the other boy , who was Ezra Ray . `` Why , I did n't know your mother ever let you out , '' said Ezra , in a bewildered fashion . In fact , the vision of Ephraim Thayer out with a sled , coasting , at eleven o'clock at night , was startling . Ezra remembered dazedly how he had heard his mother say that very afternoon that Ephraim was worse , that the doctor had been there last Saturday , and she did n't believe he would live long . He looked at Ephraim standing there in the moonlight almost as if he were a spirit . `` She ai n't let me for some time ; I 've been sick , '' admitted Ephraim , yet with defiance .