about eight o'clock
Besides the four chickens , all ready for cooking , there was a fine print of new butter , as well as a carton of several dozen eggs fresh from the coop . `` Three cheers for Mr. Brush , fellows ! '' cried Tom , after the scout master had read the note aloud ; and they were given with a will , much to the entertainment of Bill , who stood there and grinned broadly . It was about eight o'clock when the column started once more . They meant to leave the main road they had been following up to this time , for it did not run in the direction they wanted to go . There was another smaller one which they expected to follow , for that day at least , and which skirted the base of the mountain , even ascending it in several places , as their map showed . `` It will be our last day on any sort of road , if we follow out the programme as arranged , '' Tom Chesney explained , as they sat around at noon munching the `` snack '' each scout had been commissioned to prepare at breakfast time against his being hungry in the middle of the day , when they would not care to start a fire in order to do any cooking .