six o'clock
But if anyone would see the beauty and fashion of Timber Town , from four to five in the afternoon was the hour . Then wives and daughters , having finished playing at house-keeping for the day , put on their gayest costumes , and visited the milliners . Southern Cross Street buzzed with gaudy life ; pretty women bowed , and polite men raised their hats -- just as people do in real cities -- but , as everybody knew everybody else , the bowing and hat-raising were general , just as they are when the leading lady comes into the presence of the chorus on the stage . Then the vision of gossiping , smiling humanity would pass away -- the shops put up their shutters at six o'clock ; the game was over for the day , and all the chimneys smoked for tea . Timber Town by night , except when the full moon shone , was sombre , with nothing doing . The street lamps burnt but indifferent gas ; people stayed indoors , and read the piquant paragraphs of _ The Pioneer Bushman _ , Timber Town 's evening journal , or fashioned those gay dresses which by day helped to make the town so bright , and went to bed early and slept with a soundness and tranquillity , well-earned by the labour of playing so quaintly at the game of life . The hills which surrounded the little town pressed so closely upon it , that by sheer weight they seemed likely to crush its frail houses into matchwood .