eight in the evening
She laboriously spelled out the words : `` I 'll do my best , '' and closed the instrument in order that she might attend to more pressing things than telegraphic chatting . She summoned Bob to serve as her protector , and promptly sallied forth into the night . The great groceries , known as `` boat stores , '' were accustomed to be open very late at night , and often all night , for the accommodation of the stewards of steamboats landing at the levee . At seven or eight in the evening they were sure to be open , with business in unabated activity . But the clerks were full of curiosity when Barbara , escorted only by the negro serving boy , presented herself and began rattling off orders greater in volume than any they had ever received , even from the steward of an overcrowded passenger steamer . She began by ordering forty sugar cured hams and four hindquarters of beef . She followed up these purchases with orders for four kegs of molasses , six boxes of macaroni , a barrel of rice , and so on through her list .