five o'clock Thursday afternoon
I should choose the bugs ; and I ca n't say I fancy potato-bugs , either . On Wednesday I nearly killed an old lady , putting up tartar-emetic for cream-tartar . If she 'd eaten another biscuit made with it she 'd have died and I 'd have been responsible -- and father was really vexed and said I might be a light-house keeper as quick as I pleased ; but by that time I felt as if I could n't keep a light-house without Belle Marigold to help me , and so I promised to be more careful , and kept on clerking . The thermometer stood at eighty degrees in the shade when I left the store at five o'clock Thursday afternoon to go to that infallible tea-party . I was glad the day was warm , for I wanted to wear my white linen suit , with a blue cravat and Panama hat . I felt independent even of Fred Hencoop , as I walked along the street under the shade of the elms ; but , the minute I was inside Widow Jones ' gate and walking up to the door , the thermometer went up to somewhere near 200 degrees . There were something like a dozen heads at each of the parlor windows , and all women 's heads at that .