About eight o'clock
Soon the lamp-lighter with his torch and his little ladder came nimbly down the street . On the down trip Bobby found his mother waiting by the gate , a heavy shawl thrown over her head and shoulders . In the darkness , and after the cold , pale moon had climbed the heavens , the hill continued thronged . About eight o'clock many of the younger grown-ups arrived . But Bobby had to go to bed , and he fell asleep with snatches of conversation , the shriek of runners and the weird ululation of warning ringing in his ears . Within a week of Christmas Bobby suddenly awoke to the fact that he must go shopping . He found that in ready money he possessed just one dollar and sixty-two cents ; the rest he banked at interest with his father .