three o'clock
`` It 's the neighborhood 's annual debauch . The women are busy keeping the babies from getting drowned in the cellars , or they 'd get full , too . I hope , since it 's come this far , it will come farther , so the landlord will have to paper the parlor . '' That was at three o'clock . At four Mr. Ladley went down the stairs , and I heard him getting into a skiff in the lower hall . There were boats going back and forth all the time , carrying crowds of curious people , and taking the flood sufferers to the corner grocery , where they were lowering groceries in a basket on a rope from an upper window . I had been making tea when I heard Mr. Ladley go out .