three o'clock
He took hold of her hand and led her into the room . `` Who put it into your head , child ? '' he asked . `` The grocer 's wife was trimming her Christmas tree when I got there at three o'clock , and I thought it so pretty I said to myself , _ he _ shall have his tree too , and shall know that there is at least one person to think of him . I asked her to show me how to gild apples , and gilded a supply while I was there , and bought the lights and got a sack to put the tree in , so that you should n't see it . '' `` And who gave you the tree ? '' `` I cut it down myself at the edge of the forest not far from here . ''