twenty minutes past six
Tom hurried through the bright grounds , followed the directions , and in a few minutes he was climbing a slope of rough common-land , here velvety short turf full of wild thyme , which exhaled its pungent odour as his feet crushed its dewy flowers , there tufted with an exceedingly fine-growing , soft kind of furze , beyond which were clumps of the greater , with its orange and yellow blooms , and rough patches of pale-bloomed ling and brilliant yellow broom . Beyond this wide strip the closely-growing fir-trees began , forming a dense , dark-green wood . It was for this that he was aiming ; but as he reached the edge , he turned to stand in the bright sunshine looking down at the village . There was the square-towered , ivy-covered church , with its clock-face glistening , and the hands pointing to twenty minutes past six . Beyond it , what seemed to be an extensive garden beside the churchyard , and the ivy-covered gables of a house that he immediately concluded was the Vicarage . Other attractive cottage-like houses were dotted about . Then he caught sight of the green , with its smaller places .