about half past four
He was very pale and thin . Dragging the handcart did not help him to put on flesh , for the weather was very hot and the work made him sweat . His home was right away on the other side of Windley . It took him more than three-quarters of an hour to walk to the shop , and as he had to be at work at six , that meant that he had to leave home at a few minutes past five every morning , so that he always got up about half past four . He was wearing a man 's coat -- or rather jacket -- which gave the upper part of his body a bulky appearance . The trousers were part of a suit of his own , and were somewhat narrowly cut , as is the rule with boys ' cheap ready-made trousers . These thin legs appearing under the big jacket gave him a rather grotesque appearance , which was heightened by the fact that all his clothes , cap , coat , waistcoat , trousers and boots , were smothered with paint and distemper of various colours , and there were generally a few streaks of paint of some sort or other upon his face , and of course his hands -- especially round the fingernails -- were grimed with it .