About noon
Seems to me she eats a cart load ! I wonder where the butter 's to come from , if we dip into the cream this way . '' Had Mary been a little older , she might have doubted whether the blue looking stuff Mrs. Grundy poured into her cup ever saw any cream , but she was only too thankful to get it on any terms , and hurried with it back to her room . About noon the clouds broke away , while here and there a patch of bright blue sky was to be seen . But the roads were so muddy that Mary had no hope of Billy 's coming , and this it was , perhaps , which made the dinner dishes so hard to wash , and which made her cry when told that all the knives and forks must be scoured , the tea-kettle wiped , and set with its nose to the north , in what Mrs. Grundy called the `` Pout Hole , '' and which proved to be a place under the stairs , where pots , kettles and iron ware generally were kept . All things have an end , and so did the scouring , in spite of Mary 's fears to the contrary , and then watching a time when Mrs. Grundy did not see her , she stole away up stairs . Taking Alice on her lap she sat down by the open window where the damp air cooled and moistened her flushed face .