five o'clock
It was `` Daniel Abbott . '' Opening the paper , the girl expected merely to read an article telling of the arrival of the Abbott family at their cabin on Redfords Peak , but , to her dismay , the story that newspaper contained was of an entirely different nature . It was a list of the properties in the county that were tax delinquents . Meg learned from the short paragraph that the ten acres and `` cabin thereon '' belonging to one Daniel Abbott , having been for three weeks advertised as delinquent , was to be sold for taxes on August the tenth at five o'clock unless the aforesaid taxes , amounting to the sum of twenty-five dollars , should be paid before that hour . The girl stared at the printed page , unable at first to comprehend its meaning . Then she glanced at the sun . It was at least two-thirty .