about six in the afternoon
For instance , we would talk over the book I was going to write in the autumn . That was the main thing . Then one could golf , or drive , or -- I blush to write it even now -- croquet . Croquet , though , is a much maligned game , as you will immediately discover if you ever play it on the rambling lawn of the Chalybeate , about six in the afternoon , say , when the grass is greener than it is by ordinary , and the shadows are long , and the sun is well beneath the tree-tops of the Iron Bank , and your opponent makes a face at you occasionally , and on each side the old , one-storied cottages are builded of unusually red bricks and are quite ineffably asleep . Or again there is always the creek to divert yourself in . Once I caught five crawfishes there , while Marian waited on the bank ; and afterward we found an old tomato-can and boiled them in it , and they came out a really gorgeous crimson . This was the afternoon that we were Spanish Inquisitors ... .