seven o’clock
There were three lads of his own age , then Annie and Arthur , Miriam and Geoffrey . Arthur , apprenticed as an electrician in Nottingham , was home for the holiday . Morel , as usual , was up early , whistling and sawing in the yard . At seven o'clock the family heard him buy threepennyworth of hot-cross buns ; he talked with gusto to the little girl who brought them , calling her `` my darling '' . He turned away several boys who came with more buns , telling them they had been `` kested '' by a little lass . Then Mrs. Morel got up , and the family straggled down . It was an immense luxury to everybody , this lying in bed just beyond the ordinary time on a weekday .