five in the morning
Greatly to the consternation and disgust of other householders , a `` second girl '' was added to the Windom menage , -- a parlour-maid she was called . This was too much . It was rank injustice . General housework girls began to complain of having too much work to do , -- getting up at five in the morning , cooking for half a dozen `` hands , '' doing all the washing and ironing , milking , sweeping and so on , and not getting to bed till nine or ten o'clock at night , -- to say nothing of family dinners on Sunday and the preacher in every now and then , and all that . Moreover , Mrs. Windom herself never looked bedraggled . She took care of her hair , wore good clothes , went to the dentist regularly -LRB- whether she had a toothache or not -RRB- , had meals served in what Maria Bliss loftily described as `` courses , '' and saw to it that David Windom shaved once a day , dressed better than his neighbours , kept his `` surrey '' and `` side-bar buggy '' washed , his harness oiled and polished , and wore real riding-boots . The barnyard took on an orderly appearance , the stables were repaired , the picket fences gleamed white in the sun , the roof of the house was painted red , the sides a shimmering white , and there were green window shutters and green window boxes filled with geraniums .