noon
The candles which she used for this surreptitious reading of Sunday-school `` li-bries '' and any other chance literature which fell in her way , were procured with money paid to her by Miss Margaret for helping her to clean the school-room on Friday afternoons after school . Tillie would have been happy to help her for the mere joy of being with her , but Miss Margaret insisted upon paying her ten cents for each such service . The little girl was obliged to resort to a deep-laid plot in order to do this work for the teacher . It had been her father 's custom -- ever since , at the age of five , she had begun to go to school -- to `` time '' her in coming home at noon and afternoon , and whenever she was not there on the minute , to mete out to her a dose of his ever-present strap . `` I ai n't havin ' no playin ' on the way home , still ! When school is done , you come right away home then , to help me or your mom , or I 'll learn you once ! '' But it happened that Miss Margaret , in her reign at `` William Perm '' school-house , had introduced the innovation of closing school on Friday afternoons at half-past three instead of four , and Tillie , with bribes of candy bought with part of her weekly wage of ten cents , secured secrecy as to this innovation from her little sister and brother who went to school with her -- making them play in the school-grounds until she was ready to go home with them .