ten o'clock
` Course , '' replied the Sergeant confidently , `` I think I can manage it with the orficer in charge of mounts . I could get the milkman 's hoss for you . She is twenty-three years old and as quiet as an old maid of seventy-five ; she would n't run away or kick , not even if you was to build a fire under her . '' This seemed to dispose of the great difficulty in Kettle 's mind , when the Sergeant suggested that he would see the milkman that very evening , and at nine o'clock the next morning , he would go to the officer in charge of mounts , and by ten o'clock Kettle , as soon as he had finished washing up the breakfast things and had taken the After-Clap for his airing in the baby carriage , could step down to the recruiting office and enlist . Everything looked rosy to Kettle . That night , at dinner , Kettle was radiant and informed Mrs. Fortescue , between the fish and the roast , that he had `` done found his duty and was a-goin ' to do it . '' Mrs. Fortescue had some curiosity to know what this new duty of Kettle 's was , but Kettle maintained a mysterious silence , only admitting that it would not take him away from `` Miss Betty and the baby . ''