about four o'clock in the morning
Mary Linden , who was still lodging with them , could not help perceiving their unhappiness : she frequently noticed that Ruth 's eyes were red and swollen as if with crying , and she gently sought to gain her confidence , but without success . On one occasion when Mary was trying to advise her , Ruth burst out into a terrible fit of weeping , but she would not say what was the cause -- except that her head was aching -- she was not well , that was all . Sometimes Easton passed the evening at the Cricketers but frequently he went over to the allotments , where Harlow had a plot of ground . Harlow used to get up about four o'clock in the morning and put in an hour or so at his garden before going to work ; and every evening as soon as he had finished tea he used to go there again and work till it was dark . Sometimes he did not go home to tea at all , but went straight from work to the garden , and his children used to bring his tea to him there in a glass bottle , with something to eat in a little basket . He had four children , none of whom were yet old enough to go to work , and as may be imagined , he found it a pretty hard struggle to live . He was not a teetotaller , but as he often remarked , ` what the publicans got from him would n't make them very fat ' , for he often went for weeks together without tasting the stuff , except a glass or two with the Sunday dinner , which he did not regard as an unnecessary expense , because it was almost as cheap as tea or coffee .