five o'clock
I did not gain much comfort from the conversation , however , and for years thereafter the thought of death filled me with the same choking sense of terror . Creameries with ice-chests were as yet unheard of in the rural counties of Maine in 1866 . At the old farm , all of the dairy milk was set in pans on the clean , cool cellar bottom . As the warm mornings of midsummer drew on , Gram was usually up by five o'clock , attending to her cream and butter ; and about this time , as we issued drowsily forth , in response to the Old Squire 's early rap , we were repeatedly startled at hearing a sudden eldritch exclamation which was half scream , at the foot of the bulkhead stairs . `` What 's the matter down there , Ruth ? '' the Old Squire would exclaim . `` Dear me , I 've stepped on that hateful toad again ! ''