eight o'clock
A Goose Girl , like a poet , is sometimes born , sometimes otherwise . I am of the born variety . No training was necessary ; I put my head on my pillow as a complicated product of modern civilisation on a Tuesday night , and on a Wednesday morning I awoke as a Goose Girl . -LCB- Hens ... go to bed at a virtuous hour : p19.jpg -RCB- My destiny slumbered during the day , but at eight o'clock I heard a terrific squawking in the direction of the duck-ponds , and , aimlessly drifting in that direction , I came upon Phoebe trying to induce ducks and drakes , geese and ganders , to retire for the night . They have to be driven into enclosures behind fences of wire netting , fastened into little rat-proof boxes , or shut into separate coops , so as to be safe from their natural enemies , the rats and foxes ; which , obeying , I suppose , the law of supply and demand , abound in this neighbourhood . The old ganders are allowed their liberty , being of such age , discretion , sagacity , and pugnacity that they can be trusted to fight their own battles . -LCB- Ducks and geese ... would roam the streets till morning : p20.jpg -RCB- The intelligence of hens , though modest , is of such an order that it prompts them to go to bed at a virtuous hour of their own accord ; but ducks and geese have to be materially assisted , or I believe they would roam till morning .