five o'clock
Jeremiah Cobb sat at his lonely supper at the table by the kitchen window . `` Mother , '' as he with his old-fashioned habits was in the habit of calling his wife , was nursing a sick neighbor . Mrs. Cobb was mother only to a little headstone in the churchyard , where reposed `` Sarah Ann , beloved daughter of Jeremiah and Sarah Cobb , aged seventeen months ; '' but the name of mother was better than nothing , and served at any rate as a reminder of her woman 's crown of blessedness . The rain still fell , and the heavens were dark , though it was scarcely five o'clock . Looking up from his `` dish of tea , '' the old man saw at the open door a very figure of woe . Rebecca 's face was so swollen with tears and so sharp with misery that for a moment he scarcely recognized her . Then when he heard her voice asking , `` Please may I come in , Mr. Cobb ? ''