five o'clock in the morning
After that , he began to feel gloomy , no matter what sort of a time he had . That was the way he felt after almost any holiday . Market-day was a highday in the Boy 's Town , and it would be hard to say whether it was more so in summer than in winter . In summer , the market opened about four or five o'clock in the morning , and by this hour my boy 's father was off twice a week with his market-basket on his arm . All the people did their marketing in the same way ; but it was a surprise for my boy , when he became old enough to go once with his father , to find the other boys ' fathers at market too . He held on by his father 's hand , and ran by his side past the lines of wagons that stretched sometimes from the bridge to the court-house , in the dim morning light . The market-house , where the German butchers in their white aprons were standing behind their meat-blocks , was lit up with candles in sconces , that shone upon festoons of sausage and cuts of steak dangling from the hooks behind them ; but without , all was in a vague obscurity , broken only by the lanterns in the farmers ' wagons .