noon
The blessing was from a young child 's lips , but it was the first that Oliver had ever heard invoked upon his head ; and through the struggles and sufferings , and troubles and changes , of his after life , he never once forgot it . Oliver reached the stile at which the by-path terminated ; and once more gained the high-road . It was eight o'clock now . Though he was nearly five miles away from the town , he ran , and hid behind the hedges , by turns , till noon : fearing that he might be pursued and overtaken . Then he sat down to rest by the side of the milestone , and began to think , for the first time , where he had better go and try to live . The stone by which he was seated , bore , in large characters , an intimation that it was just seventy miles from that spot to London . The name awakened a new train of ideas in the boy 's mind .