four o’clock in
the afternoon
` We may as well go to the top , ' Dicky said , ` just to say we 've been . ' And Alice is no funk -- so she agreed ; though I could see she did not like it . Up at the top it was like the top of the church tower , only octogenarian in shape , instead of square . Alice got all right there ; because you can not think much about ghosts and nonsense when the sun is shining bang down on you at four o'clock in the afternoon , and you can see red farm-roofs between the trees , and the safe white roads , with people in carts like black ants crawling . It was very jolly , but we felt we ought to be getting back , because tea is at five , and we could not hope to find lifts both ways . So we started to go down . Dicky went first , then Oswald , then Alice -- and H. O. had just stumbled over the top step and saved himself by Alice 's back , which nearly upset Oswald and Dicky , when the hearts of all stood still , and then went on by leaps and bounds , like the good work in missionary magazines .