three o'clock
`` I reckon it 'll make some of 'em stare to see the scholar I am , anyways , '' he reflected . Through the hours of night he wrote and re-wrote . His pen scratched along , echoed by an exactly similar sound from the wainscots , where mice nibbled in the silence . Anon , from the debris of his composition , a complete work took shape ; and when Phoebe awoke at three o'clock , discovered her husband was still absent , and sought him hurriedly , she found the inventory completed and Will just fastening its pages together with a piece of string . He was wide awake and in a particularly happy humour . `` Ba n't you never comin ' to bed ? ' T is most marnin ' , '' she said .