six o'clock
in the evening
Fate had destined him to be the terror of cellars , store-rooms and cornbins , and had it not been for education ... we will not anticipate , however . On his way home from the high school , Pyotr Demyanitch went into a general shop and bought a mouse-trap for fifteen kopecks . At dinner he fixed a little bit of his rissole on the hook , and set the trap under the sofa , where there were heaps of the pupils ' old exercise-books , which Praskovya used for various domestic purposes . At six o'clock in the evening , when the worthy Latin master was sitting at the table correcting his pupils ' exercises , there was a sudden `` klop ! '' so loud that my uncle started and dropped his pen . He went at once to the sofa and took out the trap . A neat little mouse , the size of a thimble , was sniffing the wires and trembling with fear .