nine
o'clock
The family started at sunrise . The day was an event in the lives of every man , woman and child within a radius of twenty miles . Many came as far as thirty miles and walked the whole distance . Before nine o'clock a crowd of two thousand had gathered . The dark , lithe young mother who led her boy by the hand down the crowded aisle of the improvised brush arbor that day performed a deed which was destined to change the history of the world . The speaker who held the crowd spellbound for two hours was Henry Clay . The Boy not only heard an eloquent orator .