nine o'clock in the
morning
Nature indeed always made more preparations and much finer ones , for the dance in the woods than the simple people of the wilderness ever thought of making . The word merely went from one log house to another , fixing the day for the dance . The hunters ' daughters with the help of their mothers , filled the big baskets with simple good things on the night before ; for the young hunters came very early to go with their sweethearts to the festival , and there was no time to spare on the morning of the dance . The dancing sometimes began at nine o'clock in the morning . The three black men from Cedar House who played for the dancing were in their places long before that hour , with their instruments already in tune . One had an old fiddle , another the remnant of a guitar , and the third a clumsy iron triangle which he had made himself . Nevertheless they were famous for their dance music and known throughout the wilderness to all the dancers .