four o'clock
Not out of indolence , not out of any ill-feeling toward his foreman . He was weary after his morning 's exertions , and , besides , the joy of being out in the pure , bright air , on that wondrous sea of rolling green grass with its illimitable suggestion of freedom and its gracious odors , seduced him to an indolence quite foreign to him . He was beyond the view of the ranch , with two miles of prairie rollers intervening , so he did his work without concern for time . It was well after four o'clock when the last strand of wire was strung tight . Then , for want of a shady tree to lean his back against , he sat down by a fence post and smoked , while his horse , with girths loosened , and bit removed from its mouth , grazed joyfully near by . And then he slept . The peace of the prairie world got hold of him ; the profound silence lulled his fagged nerves , his pipe went out , and he slept .