eight o'clock
Some Continental soldiers who had been watching me , mouths agape , went to another pool to try their skill ; but while I would not boast , it is not everybody who can tickle a speckled trout ; and after my bath the soldiers were still at it , and damning their eyes , their luck , and the pretty fish which so saucily flouted them . So I flung 'em a big trout and went back to camp whistling , and there found that my Indians had fed and were now gravely renewing their paint . Tahoontowhee dressed and cooked my fish for me , each in a bass-wood leaf , and when they were done and smelling most fragrant , we all made a delicious feast , with corn bread from the ovens and salt pork and a great jug of milk from the army 's herd . At eight o'clock another gun was fired . This was the daily signal , I learned , to stack tents and load pack-horses . And another gun fired at ten o'clock meant `` March . '' With all these guns , and a fourth at sundown , I saw an unhappy time ahead for my Indians .