three o'clock in the
morning
Being almost full grown when we started to milk , and then plunging heavily into the exercise , it had a painful effect upon us . Our hands and arms , as far as the elbows , swelled , so that our sleep at night was often disturbed by pain . Mother made the butter . She had to rise at two and three o'clock in the morning , in order that it would be cool and firm enough to print for market . Jane Haizelip had left us a year previously , and we could afford no one to take her place . The heavy work told upon my gentle , refined mother . She grew thin and careworn , and often cross .