five o'clock
For our plan now was to fell the trees and `` twitch '' them down-hill with teams to the head of this slip . By rolling the bolts , as they fell from the saw , down an incline and out on the ice of the lake , we would remove them from Mrs. Lurvey 's land , and thereby comply with the letter of the law , by aid of which she was endeavoring to rob us and escheat our rights to the birch . There were ten of us . Each knew what was at stake , and all worked with such good-will that by five o'clock we had the saw running . The white birches there were from a foot up to twenty-two inches in diameter , having long , straight trunks , clear of limbs from thirty to forty feet in length . These clear trunks only were used for bolts . Plying their axes , Halstead , Addison , Thomas and Willis felled upward of forty trees that night , and these were all sawn by dark .