ten o'clock
She would sit in her window that looked down the slope to the river , with Julianna in her lap , and gaze out at the melting snow , or , later , at the first peep of green in the meadows between the two factories up and down the valley , and at those times I would notice how tired and patient her face looked , though it would all spring up into smiles when she heard the voice of the Judge , who had come in the front door . Then finally there came a night I remember well . It was about the full moon in the early days of April , but a wind had come up with a lot of clouds blowing across the sky . Maybe it was at ten o'clock -- just after I had gone to bed , anyway , and had got to sleep -- when I heard the screams -- terrible , terrible screams . And I thought they were the screams of a woman . I jumped up , threw open my window , and tried to look through the night toward the river . I could hear something splash once or twice in the water , and then all was still -- still as the grave .