About eight
o'clock
At the farm that season were two hired men , brothers named James and Asa Doane , strong , active young fellows ; and since it was warm September weather , the old Squire asked them to make a shake-down of hay for themselves that night behind the orchard wall , near the old pound , and to sleep there `` with one eye open . '' If the rogues did not come for the pears , we would take down the skunk fence early the next morning , and set it again for them the following night . Nothing suited Asa and Jim better than a lark of that sort . About eight o'clock they ensconced themselves in the orchard , thirty or forty feet from the old pound gateway . Addison also lay in wait with them . If the rogues came and began to shake the trees , all three were to make a rush for the gap , keep them in there , and shout for the old Squire to come down from the house . Addison 's surmise that Alfred and his crony would begin operations that very night proved a shrewd one .