four in the morning
The bequest from the Australian uncle had reached them just in time , so , with thankful hearts , they celebrated and had done so annually ever since . Untrammelled by convention and restraint , they thrived like weeds in their ancestral domicile , which was now sadly in need of repair . Occasionally some daring prank set the neighbourhood by the ears , but , for the most part , the twins behaved very well and attended strictly to their own affairs . They ate when they were hungry , slept when they were sleepy , and , if they desired to sit up until four in the morning , reading , they did so . A woman who had a key to the back door came in every morning , at an uncertain hour , to wash the dishes , sweep , dust , and to make the beds if they chanced to be unoccupied . As Romeo had said , the chimney had blown down and several loose bricks lay upon the roof . They had a small vegetable garden , fenced in , and an itinerant gardener looked after it , in Summer , but they had no flowers , because they maintained a large herd of stray dogs , mostly mongrels , that would have had no home had it not been for the hospitable twins .