six
o’clock
` In the loom of life-cloth pleasure , Ere our childish days be told , With the warp and woof enwoven , Glitters like a thread of gold . ' -- JEAN INGELOW . Looking back , I think my mother was the leading spirit in our household , though she never for a moment suspected it . Indeed , the chess queen must be the most active on the home board , and one of the objects of her life was to give her husband a restful evening when he came home to the six o'clock dinner . She also had to make both ends meet on an income which would seem starvation at the present day ; but she was strong , spirited , and managing , and equal to all her tasks till the long attendance upon me , and the consequent illness , forced her to spare herself -- a little -- a very little . Previously she had been our only teacher , except that my father read a chapter of the Bible with us every morning before breakfast , and heard the Catechism on a Sunday . For we could all read long before young gentlefolks nowadays can say their letters .