eight o'clock
When the candle flared and dripped , Draxy sprang up on the stand , and , poised on one foot , reached over her father 's head to snuff it . She looked like a dainty fairy half-floating in the air , but nobody knew it . Jane sat in a high-backed wooden rocking-chair , which had a flag bottom and a ruffled calico cushion , and could only rock a very few inches back and forth , owing to the loss of half of one of the rockers . For the first part of the evening , Jane always knitted ; but by eight o'clock the hands relaxed , the needles dropped , the tired head fell back against the chair , and she was fast asleep . The boys were by themselves in the farther corner of the room , playing checkers or doing sums , or reading the village newspaper . Reuben and Draxy were as alone as if the house had been empty . Sometimes he read to her in a whisper ; sometimes he pointed slowly along the lines in silence , and the wise little eyes from above followed intently .