ten o'clock before
He had reached that middle state of any powerful emotion when even the external objects among which one moves seem affected by the inward struggle between reason and desire -- the field in which he worked , the distant landscape , the familiar faces in the house , and those frail , pathetic gestures of his mother 's hands , all expressed in outward forms something of the passion which he felt stirring in his own breast . It was in his nature to dare risks blindly -- to hesitate at no experience offered him in his narrow life , and there were moments during this long day when he found himself questioning if one might not , after all , plunge headlong into the impossible . As he rose from the supper table , where he had pushed his untasted food impatiently away , he remembered that he had promised in the morning to meet Will Fletcher at the store , and , lighting his lantern , he started out to keep the appointment he had almost forgotten . He found Will overflowing with his domestic troubles , and it was after ten o'clock before they both came out upon the road and turned into opposite ways at the beginning of Sol Peterkin 's lane . `` I 'll help you with the ploughing , of course , '' Christopher said , as they lingered together a moment before parting ; `` make your mind quite easy about that . I 'll be over at sunrise on Monday and put in a whole day 's job . '' Then , as he fell back into his own road , he found something like satisfaction in the prospect of driving Will Fletcher 's plough .