eight o'clock
The other men sat around the fire , smoking ; but Patrick was down at the landing , fussing over one of the canoes , which had been somewhat roughly handled on the road coming in . Then he began to tighten the tent-ropes , and hauled at them so vigorously that he loosened two of the stakes . Then he whittled the blade of his paddle for a while , and cut it an inch too short . Then he went into the men 's tent , and in a few minutes the sound of snoring told that he had sought refuge in sleep at eight o'clock , without telling a single caribou story , or making any plans for the next day 's sport . For several days we lingered on the Lake of the Beautiful River , trying the fishing . We explored all the favourite meeting-places of the trout , at the mouths of the streams and in the cool spring-holes , but we did not have remarkable success . I am bound to say that Patrick was not at his best that year as a fisherman .