about ten o'clock
And when his gorge rose and his inwards revolted , the hours became a series of ignoble misadventures and petty disgraces strikingly lacking in privacy . It was usually upon Wednesday that his sufferings culminated ; the nervous strength accumulated during the holiday hours at the end of the week would carry him through Monday and Tuesday ; but by Wednesday it seemed ultimately proven that the next Saturday actually never was coming , `` this time '' , and the strained spirit gave way . Wednesday was the day averaging highest in Penrod 's list of absences ; but the time came when he felt that the advantages attendant upon his Wednesday `` sick headache '' did not compensate for its inconveniences . For one thing , this illness had become so symmetrically recurrent that even the cook felt that he was pushing it too far , and the liveliness of her expression , when he was able to leave his couch and take the air in the backyard at about ten o'clock , became more disagreeable to him with each convalescence . There visibly increased , too , about the whole household , an atmosphere of uncongeniality and suspicion so pronounced that every successive illness was necessarily more severe , and at last the patient felt obliged to remain bedded until almost eleven , from time to time giving forth pathetic little sounds eloquent of anguish triumphing over Stoic endurance , yet lacking a certain conviction of utterance . Finally , his father enacted , and his mother applied , a new and distinctly special bit of legislation , explaining it with simple candour to the prospective beneficiary . `` Whenever you really ARE sick , '' they said , `` you can go out and play as soon as you 're well -- that is , if it happens on Saturday .