nine
o'clock
There he would sit from half past seven until nine o'clock , stolid , heavy , impassive , his dull eyes following now one of the family and now another , but always coming back again to Sally . It sometimes happened that she had other company -- some of the young men of the neighborhood . The presence of such seemed to make no difference to Hiram ; he bore whatever broad jokes might be cracked upon him , whatever grins , whatever giggling might follow those jokes , with the same patient impassiveness . There he would sit , silent , unresponsive ; then , at the first stroke of nine o'clock , he would rise , shoulder his ungainly person into his overcoat , twist his head into his three-cornered hat , and with a `` Good night , Sally , I be going now , '' would take his departure , shutting the door carefully to behind him . Never , perhaps , was there a girl in the world had such a lover and such a courtship as Sally Martin . It was one Thursday evening in the latter part of November , about a week after Blueskin 's appearance off the capes , and while the one subject of talk was of the pirates being in Indian River inlet . The air was still and wintry ; a sudden cold snap had set in and skins of ice had formed over puddles in the road ; the smoke from the chimneys rose straight in the quiet air and voices sounded loud , as they do in frosty weather .