four o'clock in the afternoon
`` You wo n't go far this afternoon , Jacob , '' said his mother , popping her head in at the door , `` for the Captain 's coming to say good-bye . '' It was the last day of the Easter holidays . Wednesday was Captain Barfoot 's day . He dressed himself very neatly in blue serge , took his rubber-shod stick -- for he was lame and wanted two fingers on the left hand , having served his country -- and set out from the house with the flagstaff precisely at four o'clock in the afternoon . At three Mr. Dickens , the bath-chair man , had called for Mrs. Barfoot . `` Move me , '' she would say to Mr. Dickens , after sitting on the esplanade for fifteen minutes . And again , `` That 'll do , thank you , Mr. Dickens . ''