About three in the afternoon
So , I gets on my bronc and pushes the wind for Uncle Emsley Telfair 's store at the Pimienta Crossing on the Nueces -LSB- 17 -RSB- . -LSB- FOOTNOTE 16 : San Miguel Creek flows into the Frio south of San Antonio near the ranches where O. Henry lived in his youth . -RSB- -LSB- FOOTNOTE 17 : The Nueces River is one of the major rivers of West Texas , running roughly parallel to and west of the Frio . -RSB- `` About three in the afternoon I throwed my bridle rein over a mesquite limb and walked the last twenty yards into Uncle Emsley 's store . I got up on the counter and told Uncle Emsley that the signs pointed to the devastation of the fruit crop of the world . In a minute I had a bag of crackers and a long-handled spoon , with an open can each of apricots and pineapples and cherries and greengages beside of me with Uncle Emsley busy chopping away with the hatchet at the yellow clings . I was feeling like Adam before the apple stampede , and was digging my spurs into the side of the counter and working with my twenty-four-inch spoon when I happened to look out of the window into the yard of Uncle Emsley 's house , which was next to the store .