three o'clock
Before every furniture store he paused and studied the designs displayed in the windows . Then he untied Betsy and drove to a lumber mill on the outskirts of the city and made arrangements to have some freshly felled logs of black walnut and curly maple sawed into different sizes and put through a course in drying . He drove back to Medicine Woods whistling , singing , and talking to Belshazzar beside him . He ate a hasty lunch and at three o'clock was in the forest , blazing and felling slender , straight-trunked oak and ash of the desired proportions . The forest is never so wonderful as when spring wrestles with winter for supremacy . While the earth is yet ice bound , while snows occasionally fly , spring breathes her warmer breath of approach , and all nature responds . Sunny knolls , embankments , and cleared spaces become bare , while shadow spots and sheltered nooks remain white .