`` Paddy would never be eating mice if it was . '' `` If that clock does n't soon strike two I shall go out of my seven senses , '' declared Cecily with unusual vehemence . `` Time always seems long when you 're waiting , '' said the Story Girl . `` But it does seem as if we had been here more than an hour . '' `` Maybe the clock struck and we did n't hear it , '' suggested Dan . `` Somebody 'd better go and see . '' `` I 'll go , '' said Cecily . `` I suppose , even if anything happens , I 'll have time to get back to you . '' We watched her white-clad figure pass through the gate and enter the front door . A few minutes passed -- or a few years -- we could not have told which . Then Cecily came running at full speed back to us . But when she reached us she trembled so much that at first she could not speak . `` What is it ? Is it past two ? '' implored the Story Girl . `` It 's -- it 's four , '' said Cecily with a gasp . `` The old clock is n't going . Mother forgot to wind it up last night and it stopped . But it 's four by the kitchen clock -- so it is n't the Judgment Day -- and tea is ready -- and mother says to come in . '' We looked at each other , realizing what our dread had been , now that it was lifted .
It was not the Judgment XXXXX .
Cecily Dan Day Mother Paddy first hour minutes night years