five o'clock
And already her young voice would borrow some of the hopeless whining tones of the older women 's . Julia was really happiest in her relationship with the children . She frequently peeped into the kindergarten during the morning , and had her dearly loved favourites among the tiny girls and boys , and she could never be absent from the sewing class every afternoon when some forty small girls scattered themselves about the assembly hall , and chattered and sang as they worked . Volunteers from among the city 's best families were usually on hand to inspect the actual sewing -- vague , daintily dressed girls who alternately spoiled and neglected their classes , who came late and left early -- but Julia kept order , supplied materials , recited the closing prayer , and played the marches by which the children marched out at five o'clock . Now and then she incited some small girl to sing or recite for the others , and two or three times a year the sewing classes gave an evening entertainment -- extraordinary affairs at the memory of which Julia and Miss Toland used to laugh for weeks . To drill the little , indifferent , stupid youngsters in songs and dances , to spangle fifty costumes of paper cambric and tissue , to shout emphatic directions about the excited murmurings of the churning performers , to chalk marks on the stage , and mark piano scores , were all duties that fell to the two resident workers . Julia sacrificed her immaculate bedroom for a green room , the perspiration would stream from her face as she whipped off one dirty little frock after another , fastened the fairy regalia over unspeakable undergarments , and loosened sticky braids of black or yellow hair into something approaching a fairylike fluffiness .