eight o'clock
He was a `` hustler . '' He was generally up , mounted , and away of mornings before the rest of the household were awake , making the rounds of the flocks and camps . This was the duty of the major-domo , a stately old Mexican with a princely air and manner , but Teddy seemed to have a great deal of confidence in his own eyesight . Except in the busy seasons , he nearly always returned to the ranch to breakfast at eight o'clock , with Octavia and Mrs. Maclntyre , at the little table set in the central hallway , bringing with him a tonic and breezy cheerfulness full of the health and flavour of the prairies . A few days after Octavia 's arrival he made her get out one of her riding skirts , and curtail it to a shortness demanded by the chaparral brakes . With some misgivings she donned this and the pair of buckskin leggings he prescribed in addition , and , mounted upon a dancing pony , rode with him to view her possessions . He showed her everything -- the flocks of ewes , muttons and grazing lambs , the dipping vats , the shearing pens , the uncouth merino rams in their little pasture , the water-tanks prepared against the summer drought -- giving account of his stewardship with a boyish enthusiasm that never flagged .