eight o'clock
God bless you ! '' The blessing was from a young child 's lips , but it was the first that Oliver had ever heard invoked upon his head ; and through the struggles and sufferings , and troubles and changes of his after-life , he never once forgot it . Oliver soon got into the high-road . It was eight o'clock now . Though he was nearly five miles away from the town , he ran , and hid behind the hedges , by turns , till noon , fearing that he might be pursued and overtaken . Then he sat down to rest by the side of the mile-stone . The stone by which he was seated had a sign on it which said that it was just seventy miles from that spot to London .