seven o'clock in the evening
O young Mariner , Down to the haven , Call your companion , Launch your vessel And crowd your canvas , And , ere it vanishes Over the margin , After it , follow it , Follow the Gleam . Kathleen 's last year 's brown velveteen disclosed bronze slippers and stockings , -- a novelty in Beulah , -- her hair fell in such curls as Beulah had rarely beheld , and her voice was as sweet as a thrush 's note ; so perhaps it is not strange that the poem set a kind of fashion at the academy , and `` following the gleam '' became a sort of text by which to study and grow and live . Thanksgiving Day approached , and everybody was praying for a flurry of snow , just enough to give a zest to turkey and cranberry sauce . On the twentieth it suddenly occurred to Mother Carey that this typical New England feast day would be just the proper time for the housewarming , so the Lord children , the Pophams , and the Harmons were all bidden to come at seven o'clock in the evening . Great preparations ensued . Rows of Jack o ' Lanterns decorated the piazza , and the Careys had fewer pumpkin pies in November than their neighbors , in consequence of their extravagant inroads upon the golden treasures of the aft garden . Inside were a few late asters and branches of evergreen , and the illumination suggested that somebody had been lending additional lamps and candles for the occasion .