nearly four o'clock
It was very cool there on the north door-step . Before it lay the wide north yard full of tall waving grass , with some little cinnamon rose-bushes sunken in it . Hardly anybody used the north door , so there was no path leading to it . It was nearly four o'clock . Hannah Maria bent her sober freckled face over the sheet , and sewed and sewed . Her mother had gone to the next town to do some shopping , and bidden her to finish the seam before she returned . Hannah Maria was naturally obedient ; moreover , her mother was a decided woman , so she had been very diligent ; in fact the seam was nearly sewed .