noon
Strange to say , Peter van Holp soon arrived at a sudden conviction that his little sister needed a wooden chain just like Hilda 's . Two days afterwards , on Saint Nicholas 's Eve , Hans , having burned three candle ends and cut his thumb into the bargain , stood in the marketplace at Amsterdam , buying another pair of skates . Shadows in the Home Good Dame Brinker ! As soon as the scanty dinner had been cleared away that noon , she had arrayed herself in her holiday attire in honor of Saint Nicholas . It will brighten the children , she thought to herself , and she was not mistaken . This festival dress had been worn very seldom during the past ten years ; before that time it had done good service and had flourished at many a dance and kermis , when she was known , far and wide , as the pretty Meitje Klenck . The children had sometimes been granted rare glimpses of it as it lay in state in the old oaken chest .