about two o'clock
`` All right , '' said Ralph , as he marched off . `` And grandmother , please , '' said Sylvia , `` may Molly and I go out with Marcelline this afternoon to do some shopping ? The pretty Christmas things are coming in now , and we have lots to do . '' `` Certainly , my dears , '' said grandmother again , and about two o'clock the little girls set off , one on each side of good-natured Marcelline , in high spirits , to do their Christmas shopping . Grandmother watched them from the window , and thought how pretty they looked , and the thought earned her back to the time -- not so very long ago did it seem to her now -- when their mother had been just as bright and happy as they -- the mother who had never lived to see them more than babies . Grandmother 's eyes filled with tears , but she smiled through the tears . `` God is good and sends new blessings When the old He takes away , '' she whispered to herself .