"Say, mister, do you know what time it is?" asked Joe.
The man pulled up the horse, and took a watch out of his pocket. He looked at the dial, and then held the watch to his ear.
"Well," he remarked leisurely, "guess my watch has stopped again. But I can tell yer pretty close. It was quarter to nine when I came by Moulton's, an' that wa'n't more'n fifteen minutes ago. It's 'bout nine o'clock now,—I guess you young fellers better be gettin' home pretty quick, or you won't get no breakfast!"
"What?"
We all shouted at once.
The man looked at us bewildered.
"What are you talkin' about?" Joe Carter asked him; "quarter of nine—in the evening?"
"Evening?" said the man; "you crazy? No,—quarter to nine in the mornin', of course. What do you—oh! I see! Been spendin' the night in the woods, an' got lost, ain't yer?"
"No," Joe replied; "we been out all day,—we started 'fore daylight this morning, an' we thought it was night."