Nine o'clock at night
Still , Mrs. Sadoc Smith proposed to quell that mirth and suppress the joy of Curly 's nature if possible . The only question was : In the process of making Curly over to fit her ideas of what a boy should be , was not Mrs. Smith running a grave chance of ruining the boy entirely ? And what boy , living in a house with four girls , could keep from trying to play tricks upon them ? If the shed-chamber had been a mile away over the roofs of the Smith house , Curly would have been tempted to creep over the shingles to one of the windows of the big front room , and -- Nine o'clock at night . All four of the girls quartered with Mrs. Smith were busy with their books -- even flaxen-haired Amy Gregg . The rustle of turning leaves and a sigh of weariness now and then was all that had broken the silence for half an hour . Outside , the wind moaned in the trees .