five in the morning
He looked up the water , and there he saw a sight as strange as the noise ; a great ball rolling over and over down the stream , seeming one moment of soft brown fur , and the next of shining glass : and yet it was not a ball ; for sometimes it broke up and streamed away in pieces , and then it joined again ; and all the while the noise came out of it louder and louder . Tom asked the dragon-fly what it could be : but , of course , with his short sight , he could not even see it , though it was not ten yards away . So he took the neatest little header into the water , and started off to see for himself ; and , when he came near , the ball turned out to be four or five beautiful creatures , many times larger than Tom , who were swimming about , and rolling , and diving , and twisting , and wrestling , and cuddling , and kissing , and biting , and scratching , in the most charming fashion that ever was seen . And if you do n't believe me , you may go to the Zoological Gardens -LRB- for I am afraid that you wo n't see it nearer , unless , perhaps , you get up at five in the morning , and go down to Cordery 's Moor , and watch by the great withy pollard which hangs over the backwater , where the otters breed sometimes -RRB- , and then say , if otters at play in the water are not the merriest , lithest , gracefullest creatures you ever saw . But , when the biggest of them saw Tom , she darted out from the rest , and cried in the water-language sharply enough , `` Quick , children , here is something to eat , indeed ! '' and came at poor Tom , showing such a wicked pair of eyes , and such a set of sharp teeth in a grinning mouth , that Tom , who had thought her very handsome , said to himself , _ Handsome is that handsome does _ , and slipped in between the water-lily roots as fast as he could , and then turned round and made faces at her . `` Come out , '' said the wicked old otter , `` or it will be worse for you . ''