four o'clock in the morning
`` I am going to take a look around again , '' said Ralph , noticing her uneasiness . `` Perhaps it was a sneak-thief who has stolen the ax or the saw from the woodshed . '' Ralph walked outside . It was now growing lighter in the east , for it was after four o'clock in the morning . He looked about the woodshed and the cottage , but everything appeared to be all right . Certainly nothing had been stolen . The boy was about to return to the kitchen , when he heard several men coming down the road from the village .