five o'clock
And we found to our cost that this magistrate had as little justice as mercy in his composition ; for though he lent a patient ear to the farmer 's case , he would not listen to Jack Dawson 's argument , which was good enough , being to the effect that we had not as much as a pound amongst us , and that he would rather be hanged than pay it if he had ; and when Ned Herring -LRB- seeing the kind of Puritanical fellow he was -RRB- urged that , since the damage was not done by any design of ours , it must be regarded as a visitation of Providence , he says : `` Very good . If it be the will of Providence that one should be scourged , I take it as the Divine purpose that I should finish the business by scourging the other '' ; and therewith he orders the constable to take what money we have from our pockets and clap us in the stocks till sundown for payment of the difference . So in the stocks we three poor men were stuck for six mortal hours , which was a wicked , cruel thing indeed , with the wind blowing a sort of rainy snow about our ears ; and there I do think we must have perished of cold and vexation but that our little Moll brought us a sheet for a cover , and tired not in giving us kind words of comfort . At five o'clock the constable unlocked us from our vile confinement , and I do believe we should have fallen upon him and done him a mischief for his pains there and then , but that we were all frozen as stiff as stones with sitting in the cold so long , and indeed it was some time ere we could move our limbs at all . However , with much ado , we hobbled on at the tail of our cart , all three very bitter , but especially Ned Herring , who cursed most horridly and as I had never heard him curse off the stage , saying he would rather have stayed in London to carry links for the gentry than join us again in this damnable adventure , etc. . And that which incensed him the more was the merriment of our Moll , who , seated on the side of the cart , could do nothing better than make sport of our discontent . But there was no malice in her laughter , which , if it sprang not from sheer love of mischief , arose maybe from overflowing joy at our release .