three o'clock
We should n't be doing it right without a surprise , you know . '' And the surprise was not dolls ' pelerines , but books . `` Little Women '' was one , which sent Diana and Hazel off for a delicious two hours ' read up in their own room until dinner . After dinner , Miss Craydocke came , in her purple and white striped mohair and her white lace neckerchief ; and at three o'clock Uncle Titus walked in , with his coat pockets so bulgy and rustling and odorous of peppermint and sassafras , that it was no use to pretend to wait and be unconscious , but a pure mercy to unload him so that he might be able to sit down . Nobody knows to this day where he got them ; he must have ordered them somewhere , one would think , long enough before to have special moulds and implements made ; but there were large , beautiful cockles , -- not of the old flour-paste sort , but of clear , sparkling sugar , rose-color , and amber , and white , with little slips of tinted paper tucked within , and these printed delicately with pretty rhymes and couplets , from real poets ; things to be truly treasured , yet simple , for children 's apprehension , and fancy , and fun . And there were `` Salem gibraltars , '' such as we only get out of Essex County now and then , for a big charitable Fair , when Salem and everywhere else gets its spirit up to send its best and most especial ; and there were toys and devices in sugar -- flowers and animals , hats , bonnets , and boots , apples , and cucumbers , -- such as Diana and Hazel , and even Desire and Helena had never seen before . `` It is n't quite fair , '' said good Miss Craydocke .