five o'clock
`` I ` ai n't swallered a plug this mornin ' , ` xcep ' a lump o ' bread out o ' granny 's cupboard . That 's what I got my weltin ' for . It were a whole half-loaf , though -- an ' none so dry ! '' Clare had eaten nothing , and had been up since five o'clock -- at work all the time till the farmer struck him : he was quite as hungry as Tommy . What was to be done ? Besides a pocket-handkerchief he had but one thing alienable . The very day she was taken ill , he had been in the store-room with his mother , and she , knowing the pleasure he took in the scent of brown Windsor-soap , had made him a present of a small cake .