midnight
Well , one has always pencils ; the fire is generally at hand ; we shall see . After all , a great deal of one 's life is made up of digressions . In the summer-time there were sharks in Myall Creek , but I had never seen them there in the spring . It was , I think , still somewhere short of midnight when I stepped quietly out of the low window of the room I shared with seven other orphans . -LRB- The house was all of one storey . -RRB- I would have taken boots , but , excepting on visitors ' Sundays , these were kept in a locked cupboard in the sisters ' building . My outfit consisted of a comparatively whole pair of trousers -- not those immortalised in Mr. Rawlence 's sketch -- a strong , short-sleeved shirt of hard , grey woollen stuff , a dilapidated waistcoat , a belt , my little book of bush flowers and trees , and my one-pound note .