ten o'clock
From time to time , she smiled mechanically at her mother ; and the old lady , forgetful of her grief now that she was no longer reproached by the empty space on , the wall , sat content and sleepy after her emotion . She was willing to go to bed early ; and when Amanda heard her breathing peacefully , she sat down by the kitchen window to wait . The dusk came slowly , and the whippoorwill sang from the deep woods behind the house . That night at ten o'clock , Caleb Rivers was walking stolidly along the country road , when his ear became aware of a strangely familiar sound , -- a steadily recurrent creak . It was advancing , though intermittently . Sometimes it ceased altogether , as if the machinery stopped to rest , and again it began fast and shrill . He rounded a bend of the road , and came full upon a remarkable vision .