midnight
We happen to have taken the day of Greenwich or Paris as the day of civilization , and we say that it begins earlier in China and later in California ; but it is all the same day , we say . Therefore there has to be some place out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean where we lose or gain a day -- if we are going east , we gain it ; if we are going west , we lose it . Now I suppose this little girl of twelve was on her way from some Asiatic port to some American port , and they stopped on their voyage at Honolulu . Perhaps they dropped anchor there just before midnight on their February 28 , 1808 , thinking that the morrow would be the 29th ; but when they were hailed from the shore , just after midnight , they found out that it was already March 1st . '' As the soldier finished , he looked at the mathematician for confirmation of his explanation . Thus appealed to , the professor of mathematics smiled and nodded , and said : `` You have hit it . That 's just how it was that my grandmother lost the birthday she ought to have had when she was twelve , and had to go four years more without one . ''