nine o'clock in summer
His parents were both prudent and pious . Throughout such portions of the Sabbath as they did not spend with their offspring in their pew , they kept them indoors behind drawn blinds . His mother kissed young Heriot seldom and severely -LRB- with a cold smack like a hailstone -RRB- , and never permitted him to remain ten minutes in the same room with a housemaid unchaperoned . His father never allowed him to sleep under more than two blankets , and locked the front door at nine o'clock in summer and six in winter . The supreme merit of this system in insuring the survival of the fittest was seen in its results . Heriot 's elder brother passed away at the age of two in the course of a severe winter . Clearly he would never have been a credit to oatmeal .