eight o'clock
At that `` witching hour , '' if any of the Corner House girls had been awake and had looked out of the window , they would have seen that the snowman was then buried to his waist ! When daylight should have appeared , snow was still falling . A wind had arisen , and on one side of the old Corner House the drift entirely masked the windows . At eight o'clock they ate breakfast by lamplight . Uncle Rufus did not get downstairs early , as he usually did , and when Tess ran up to call him , she found the old man groaning in his bed , and unable to rise . `` I done got de mis ` ry in my back , chile , '' he said , feebly . `` Don ' yo ' worry ` bout me none ; I 'll be cropin ' down erbout noon . ''