three o'clock
`` You do n't mean to say that it is nearly six o'clock ? '' `` I do ; for that witching hour is certainly near at hand . '' `` Well , I never knew a day to pass so quickly in my life . I did n't suppose it was more than three o'clock , at the latest . '' `` It is , though ; and to understand how time passes down in a mine , you have but to remember two often quoted sayings . One is , ` Time is money , ' and the other , ` Money vanishes down the throat of a mine more quickly than smoke up a chimney . ' Ergo , time vanishes quickly down in a mine .