four o'clock in the
afternoon
Altogether , it was a day of hard work . We were very tired -- all the more so because we had slept hardly ten minutes the preceding night . But again we were much disturbed by the snarling of lynxes and the uneasiness of our horses at the ox camp . In fact , it was another dismal night for us ; we hitched up at daybreak , and after a fearfully rough drive over bare logs and stones , and several breakages of harness , we reached the old Squire 's , thoroughly tired out , at four o'clock in the afternoon . The girls , however , were delighted with our lofty load of witches ' brooms . In truth , it was rather picturesque , so many of those great gray bunches of intermeshed twigs , ensconced amid the green fir boughs that we had cut with them . A hall or a church would look odd indeed thus decorated .