one o'clock
`` There must be a hole in the mail-pouch , '' said the postmistress , in gentle distress . There certainly was . The letters were soaked ; the wrappers on newspaper and parcel had become detached ; the interior of the government 's mail-pouch resembled the preliminary stages of a paper-pulp vat . But the postmistress worked so diligently among the débris that by one o'clock she had sorted and placed in separate numbered boxes every letter , newspaper , and parcel -- save one . That one was a letter directed to '' _ James Helm , Esq. _ '' _ Nauvoo _ , via _ White Lake _ . '' and it was so wet and the gum that sealed it was so nearly dissolved that the postmistress decided to place it between blotters , pile two volumes of government agricultural reports on it , and leave it until dry . One by one the population of Nauvoo came dripping into the post-office for the mail , then slopped out into the storm again , umbrellas couched in the teeth of the wind .