ten o'clock
With Hop Higgins safely stowed away in the chair behind the stove only three people were awake in Winesburg . George Willard was in the office of the Eagle pretending to be at work on the writing of a story but in reality continuing the mood of the morning by the fire in the wood . In the bell tower of the Presbyterian Church the Reverend Curtis Hartman was sitting in the darkness preparing himself for a revelation from God , and Kate Swift , the school teacher , was leaving her house for a walk in the storm . It was past ten o'clock when Kate Swift set out and the walk was unpremeditated . It was as though the man and the boy , by thinking of her , had driven her forth into the wintry streets . Aunt Elizabeth Swift had gone to the county seat concerning some business in connection with mortgages in which she had money invested and would not be back until the next day . By a huge stove , called a base burner , in the living room of the house sat the daughter reading a book .