three o’clock
Everything wore a new and smiling face , and Elsie never came more dangerously near being squeezed to death . Elsie , in the prettiest of gingham dresses , and her cloud of golden hair braided in two funny little pugs to keep it out of the dust ; Elsie , with a wide hat that shaded her face , already a little tanned and burned , no longer colourless ; Elsie , with no lines of pain in her pretty forehead , and the hollow ring gone from her voice ; Elsie , who jumped over the wheel of the wagon , and hugged her huggers with the strength of a young bear ! It was too good to believe , and nobody did quite believe it for days . At three o'clock the happiest party in the world assembled at the rough dining-table under the sycamore-trees . Elsie beamed upon the feast from the high-backed manzanita chair , a faint colour in her cheeks , and starry prisms of light in a pair of eyes that had not sparkled for many a weary month . Hop Yet smiled a trifle himself , wore his cap with a red button on the top to wait upon the table , and ministered to the hungry people with more interest and alacrity than he had shown since he had been dragged from Santa Barbara , his Joss , and his nightly game of fantan . And such a dinner as he had prepared in honour of the occasion !