Three o'clock in the morning
`` Poor little things ! '' said Huldah , `` Alice has been so pretty all day . '' And she gulped down just one more sigh , disgusted with herself , as she remembered that `` if '' of the afternoon , -- `` if John had only gone into partnership with Joe Winter . '' Three o'clock in the morning saw Huldah 's fire burning in the stove , her water boiling in the kettle , her slices of ham broiling on the gridiron , and quarter-past three saw the men come across from the barn , where they had been shaking down hay for the cows and horses , and yoking the oxen for the terrible onset of the day . It was bright star-light above , -- thank Heaven for that . This strip of three hundred thousand square miles of snow cloud , which had been drifting steadily cast over a continent , was , it seemed , only twenty hours wide , -- say two hundred miles , more or less , -- and at about midnight its last flecks had fallen , and all the heaven was washed black and clear . The men were well rested by those five hours of hard sleep .