eight at night
Now , I dare say , you never got up at three o'clock on a midsummer morning . Some people get up then because they want to catch salmon ; and some because they want to climb Alps ; and a great many more because they must , like Tom . But , I assure you , that three o'clock on a midsummer morning is the pleasantest time of all the twenty-four hours , and all the three hundred and sixty-five days ; and why every one does not get up then , I never could tell , save that they are all determined to spoil their nerves and their complexions by doing all night what they might just as well do all day . But Tom , instead of going out to dinner at half-past eight at night , and to a ball at ten , and finishing off somewhere between twelve and four , went to bed at seven , when his master went to the public-house , and slept like a dead pig ; for which reason he was as piert as a game-cock -LRB- who always gets up early to wake the maids -RRB- , and just ready to get up when the fine gentlemen and ladies were just ready to go to bed . So he and his master set out ; Grimes rode the donkey in front , and Tom and the brushes walked behind ; out of the court , and up the street , past the closed window-shutters , and the winking weary policemen , and the roofs all shining grey in the grey dawn . They passed through the pitmen 's village , all shut up and silent now , and through the turnpike ; and then they were out in the real country , and plodding along the black dusty road , between black slag walls , with no sound but the groaning and thumping of the pit-engine in the next field . But soon the road grew white , and the walls likewise ; and at the wall 's foot grew long grass and gay flowers , all drenched with dew ; and instead of the groaning of the pit-engine , they heard the skylark saying his matins high up in the air , and the pit-bird warbling in the sedges , as he had warbled all night long .