about eleven
o'clock
Bart felt that he was undertaking the hardest task of his life when he reached home and broke the news to his mother -- it was like disturbing the peace of some earthly Eden . Mrs. Stirling went at once to the hospital with her eldest daughter , Bertha . Bart , very anxious and miserable , got the younger boys to bed and tried to cheer up his little sister Alice , who was in a transport of grief and suspense . The strain was relieved when Bertha Stirling came home about eleven o'clock . She was in tears , but subdued any active exhibition of emotion until Alice , on the assurance that her father was resting comfortably at the hospital , was induced to retire . Then she broke down utterly , and Bart had a hard time keeping her from being hysterical . She said that her mother intended staying all night at the side of her suffering husband and had tried to send some reassuring word to her son .