eight o'clock
Guess it 's the warm weather . I 'll get down to the mill for a day or two . '' There he found himself incapable of even the most petty routine work . He sat to his desk at eight o'clock and began the perusal of a sheaf of letters , comprising a certain correspondence , which Collins brought him . The first three he read carefully ; the following two rather hurriedly ; of the next one he seized only the salient and essential points ; the seventh and eighth he skimmed ; the remainder of the bundle he thrust aside in uncontrollable impatience . Next day he returned to the woods . The incident of the letters had aroused to the full his old fighting spirit , before which no mere instincts could stand .