eleven o'clock at night
before
Perhaps I ought to say that I left home in June , not because I was n't welcome to stay , but because I thought it was time I saw something of the world . Mother was sure I should be killed on the cars , but at last she gave her consent . I went to Galena , from there up the Mississippi on a packet to St. Paul , and then out to Dakota with Burrdock . The snake 's - heads delayed us so that it was eleven o'clock at night before we reached Track 's End . Ours was the only train that ran on the road then , and it came up Mondays and Thursdays , and went back Tuesdays and Fridays . It was a freight-train , with a caboose on the end for passengers , `` and the snake 's - heads , '' as the fireman said . A snake 's - head on the old railroads was where a rail got loose from the fish-plate at one end and came up _ over _ the wheel instead of staying down _ under _ it .