nine o'clock
It was only for a moment ; for our hearts told us that nobody could help loving her , who had looked through her loving blue eyes , into the clear well-spring of the heart beneath . So we threw our arms around her and sobbed without a word ! We knew very well that the young clergyman , whose Sunday sermons and gentle admonitions had won all hearts , had been for months a weekly visiter to our fireside circle . With baby Georgie on his knee , and Georgie 's brothers and sisters clustered about him , he had sat through many an evening charming the hours away , until the clock startled us with its unwelcome nine o'clock warning ; and the softly spoken reminder , `` Girls , it is bed-time ! '' woke more than one stifled sigh of regret . Then sister Ellen must always go with us to lay Georgie in his little bed ; to hear him and Annette repeat the evening prayer and hymn her lips had taught them ; to comb out the long brown braids of Emily 's head ; to rob Arthur of the story book , over which he would have squandered the `` midnight oil ; '' and to breathe a kiss and a blessing over the pillow of each other sister , as she tucked the warm blankets tenderly about them . We do not know how often of late she had stolen down again , from these sisterly duties , after our senses were locked in sleep ; or if our eyes and ears had ever been open to the fact , we could never have suspected the _ minister _ to be guilty of such a plot against our peace !