four o'clock
May Lily , strong and willing , went to work like a small cyclone . Under Lloyd 's direction , she swept and scrubbed and scoured . The bed was aired , the stove was blacked , the windows washed , the tins polished till they shone like new . By four o'clock not a cobweb or a speck of dust was to be seen in either room . Lloyd sat down to wait for Mrs. Perkins 's return . She felt that it was safe to breathe now , and she did not have to sit gingerly on the edge of the chair . Every piece of furniture had been washed and rubbed .