ten o'clock
` Well , go then , my dear , and thank your heavenly Father for His goodness , and ask Him to bless you , and keep you from all evil to-day . ' And Freddy went back to his room , and knelt beside his little bed , and repeated the same prayer that he had said so many times before , without thinking even of what he was saying ; but this time he did think . After breakfast Fred went to feed the fowls , though this ought to have been done before ; but this was a beginning , so it did not much matter . At ten o'clock he was called to his books , and Aunt Mary expected a trial , for Freddy had never been at school , and his teaching at home had been only such as he chose to receive from his mamma or his sisters , when he happened to be in the humour . Yet he was naturally a quick child , and but for temper , his aunt did not at all contemplate any difficulty ; indeed , she had no reason to do so , with her method of teaching . She was never harsh , but she was strict in discipline . She knew , that to make children happy , it was not at all necessary that they should have their own way , though she never contradicted them without occasion .