about six in the evening
March 1883 . THE WITHERED ARM It was an eighty-cow dairy , and the troop of milkers , regular and supernumerary , were all at work ; for , though the time of year was as yet but early April , the feed lay entirely in water-meadows , and the cows were ` in full pail . ' The hour was about six in the evening , and three - fourths of the large , red , rectangular animals having been finished off , there was opportunity for a little conversation . ` He do bring home his bride to-morrow , I hear . They 've come as far as Anglebury to-day . ' The voice seemed to proceed from the belly of the cow called Cherry , but the speaker was a milking-woman , whose face was buried in the flank of that motionless beast .