six o'clock in the evening
This is a crushing weight of pain , which all new-comers , or almost all , are obliged to endure , sometimes for as much as eight-and-forty hours , when the first great snow of the winter is breeding , as they express it , overhead . But I was more lucky than most people are ; for after about twelve hours of almost intolerable throbbing , during which the sweetest sound was odious , and the idea of food quite loathsome , the agony left me , and a great desire for something to eat succeeded . Suan Isco , the kindest of the kind , was gone down stairs at last , for which I felt ungrateful gratitude -- because she had been doing her best to charm away my pain by low , monotonous Indian ditties , which made it ten times worse ; and yet I could not find heart to tell her so . Now it must have been past six o'clock in the evening of the November day when the avalanche slid off my head , and I was able to lift it . The light of the west had been faint , and was dead ; though often it used to prolong our day by the backward glance of the ocean . With pangs of youthful hunger , but a head still weak and dazy , I groped my way in the dark through the passage and down the stairs of redwood . At the bottom , where a railed landing was , and the door opened into the house-room , I was surprised to find that , instead of the usual cheerful company enjoying themselves by the fire-light , there were only two people present .