five in the morning
And one more task waited , the launching of the boat when the river ran water to receive it . Vainly Daylight staggered and stumbled and fell and crept through the snow that was wet with thaw , or across it when the night 's frost still crusted it beyond the weight of a man , searching for one more squirrel , striving to achieve one more transmutation of furry leap and scolding chatter into the lifts and tugs of a man 's body that would hoist the boat over the rim of shore-ice and slide it down into the stream . Not till the twentieth of May did the river break . The down-stream movement began at five in the morning , and already were the days so long that Daylight sat up and watched the ice-run . Elijah was too far gone to be interested in the spectacle . Though vaguely conscious , he lay without movement while the ice tore by , great cakes of it caroming against the bank , uprooting trees , and gouging out earth by hundreds of tons . All about them the land shook and reeled from the shock of these tremendous collisions .