three o'clock
Whether she came to care for these stolid people on the height , or whether the vision counseled her , Mary gave up her house in the village , and bought a little old dwelling under an overhanging hillside , at Horn o ' the Moon . It was a nest built into the rock , its back sitting snugly there . The dark came down upon it quickly . In winter , the sun was gone from the little parlor as early as three o'clock ; but Mary did not mind . That house was her temporary shell ; she only slept in it in the intervals of hurrying away , with blessed feet , to tend the sick , and hold the dying in untiring arms . I shall never forget how , one morning , I saw her come out of the door , and stand silent , looking toward the rosy east . There was the dawn , and there was she , its priestess , while all around her slept .