six o'clock
-LSB- Illustration -LRB- untitled -RRB- -RSB- To begin with the old rigmarole of childhood . In a country there was a shire , and in that shire there was a town , and in that town there was a house , and in that house there was a room , and in that room there was a bed , and in that bed there lay a little girl ; wide awake and longing to get up , but not daring to do so for fear of the unseen power in the next room -- a certain Betty , whose slumbers must not be disturbed until six o'clock struck , when she wakened of herself `` as sure as clockwork , '' and left the household very little peace afterwards . It was a June morning , and early as it was , the room was full of sunny warmth and light . On the drawers opposite to the little white dimity bed in which Molly Gibson lay , was a primitive kind of bonnet-stand on which was hung a bonnet , carefully covered over from any chance of dust with a large cotton handkerchief , of so heavy and serviceable a texture that if the thing underneath it had been a flimsy fabric of gauze and lace and flowers , it would have been altogether `` scomfished '' -LRB- again to quote from Betty 's vocabulary -RRB- . But the bonnet was made of solid straw , and its only trimming was a plain white ribbon put over the crown , and forming the strings .