twelve o'clock
Our street was a sight to be seen , or , rather , it was a sight not to be seen ; for very little street was visible . One huge drift completely banked up our front door and half covered my bedroom window . There was no school that day , for all the thoroughfares were impassable . By twelve o'clock , however , the great snowploughs , each drawn by four yokes of oxen , broke a wagon-path through the principal streets ; but the foot-passengers had a hard time of it floundering in the arctic drifts . The Captain and I cut a tunnel , three feet wide and six feet high , from our front door to the sidewalk opposite . It was a beautiful cavern , with its walls and roof inlaid with mother-of-pearl and diamonds . I am sure the ice palace of the Russian Empress , in Cowper 's poem , was not a more superb piece of architecture .