eight o'clock
It was hard for them to realize that the powerful engines in both cars would take them into town in little over an hour , when the journey as they before had made it had always consumed six , and they were becoming impatient even before we left . So when we met Bess and Matthew half an hour later down the Riverfield ribbon , I hurried them back . I afterwards learned that they had had to persuade Mrs. Spain to reclothe herself in the pink foulard , because she had decided that they were not coming and had gone back to work . In reality I did n't draw a perfectly free breath until I saw the entire population of Riverfield seated in advantageous seats on the middle aisle in the town hall at six-thirty , and beginning to get out their lunch-baskets to feed themselves and the kiddies before the opening of the convocation at eight o'clock . According to the advice of Mrs. Addcock and Mrs. Tillett herself , I had taken a stuffed egg , a chicken wing , and a slice of jelly-cake for my own supper , along with Baby Tillett 's bag of hard biscuits , over on a side aisle , and from that vantage-point I could see the whole party . `` They are lovely -- the loveliest of all , mine are , '' I said to myself as I surveyed them proudly and compared them with other lunching delegations , which I knew to be from Providence and Hillsboro and Cloverbend . Baby Tillett crowed a proud assent as he stuck a biscuit in his mouth and looked at the lights with the greatest pleasure .