three in the morning
However early the hour might be in which a village boy peeped over the wall of her garden , he always saw her white night-cap moving , and he knew that her bright blue eyes would be on him , and he would be proclaimed a thief all over the place before many minutes were over . Moses , therefore , was very glad to secure his cherries by fair means , as he could not obtain them by foul ; and he went to bed and to sleep , determined to be off on his errand with the dawn . A very natural thing , however , happened . Moses , unaccustomed to getting up at half-past three in the morning , never opened his eyes until the church clock struck five . Then he started upright , rubbed and rubbed at his sleepy orbs , tumbled into his clothes , and , softly opening the cottage door , set off on his errand . The fact of his being nearly an hour and a half late did not trouble him in the least . In any case , he would get to Lavender House before six o'clock , and would have consumed his cherries in less than an hour from that date .