five o'clock
Father says there are ever so many mules in Washington . Wo n't I sit at the windows and see 'em go by ! '' Thursday , Friday , Saturday passed ; Sunday began and ended in a rain-storm ; Monday came like a dream , with warm , sweet winds , and dewdrops quivering in a blaze of unclouded light . Like a dream it seemed to the girls to be hurrying away at five o'clock , from an unfinished breakfast , from Mrs. Breynton 's gentle good-bye , Tom 's valuable patronage and advice , and Winnie 's reminder that he was five years old , and that to the candid mind it was perfectly clear that he ought `` to go too-o-oo . '' Very much like a dream was it , to be walking on the platform at the station , in the tucked skirts and new brown feather ; to watch the checking of the trunks and buying of the tickets , quite certain that they were different from all other checks and tickets ; to find how interesting the framed railway and steamboat guide for the Continent , on the walls of the little dingy ladies ' room , suddenly became , -- at least until the pleasing discovery that it was printed in 1849 , and gave minute directions for reaching the _ Territory _ of California . More like a dream was it , to watch the people that lounged or worked about the dépôt ; the ticket-master , who had stood shut up there just so behind the little window for twenty years ; the baggage-master , who tossed about their trunks without ever _ thinking _ of the jewelry-boxes inside , and that cologne-bottle with the shaky cork ; the cross-eyed woman with her knitting-work , who sold sponge-cake and candy behind a very small counter ; the small boys in singularly airy jackets , who were putting pins and marbles on the track for the train to run over ; the old woman across the street , who was hanging out her clothes to dry in the back yard , just as if it had been nothing but a common Monday , and nobody had been going to Washington ; -- how strange it seemed that they could all be living on and on just as they did every day ! `` Oh , just think ! ''