ten o'clock before
`` If I had n't taken that nonsense in hand straight off , there 's no telling where it would n't have spread . '' By the end of the week following she had put all uneasiness out of her mind . Next Saturday -- as her custom was on Saturdays -- she traded in Plymouth , and did n't reach home until an hour or more past nightfall , having waited on the Barbican for the evening fish-auction , to see how prices were ruling . 'T was near upon ten o'clock before she 'd moored her boat , and as she went up the street past the `` Fish and Anchor '' she heard something that fetched her to a standstill . She stood for a minute , listening ; then walked in without more ado , set down her baskets in the passage , and pushed open the door of the bar-room . There was a whole crowd of men gathered inside , and the place thick with tobacco-smoke . And in the middle of this crew , with his back to the door , sat her husband piping out a song : Ye sexes , give ear to my fancy ; In the praise of good women I sing ; It is not of Doll , Kate , or Nancy , The mate of a clown nor a King -- With my fol-de-rol , tooral-i-lay !