about four o’clock
`` Poor Doggy ! '' said George , `` I can pity him for I remember once when I walked some miles through the snow , and my shoes got clogged up , I was so tired , what Uncle Tom called ` dead beat , ' that I could not help crying the last mile before I reached home . '' `` Imagine , then , your grandfather starting and making the best of his way over the snow-clad country until the afternoon began to warn him that he must make a halt . At about four o'clock the traveller has to begin his preparation for the night 's lodging , and this he does by clearing away the snow -LRB- which is sometimes ten feet deep -RRB- from a square space ; for which purpose he makes a rude shovel , cut out of the side of some standing tree ; and , as snow does not adhere to wood as it does to iron , this is the best thing to be used in removing the snow . When the ground is quite cleared , the wood for the fire is laid in the centre , about a foot of loose snow being left round the space in which it is to be kindled . Upon this , the spruce or fir branches , which easily break off when bent sharply backwards , are laid all one way , with the lower part of the bough upwards . Thus the bed is made .