about four in the afternoon
I could not turn my back on his distress ; could not leave him alone with the selfish trooper who snored on the next mattress . ` Champdivers , my lad , your health ! ' said a voice in my ear , and stopped me -- and there are few things I am more glad of in the retrospect than that it did . It must have been about four in the afternoon -- at least the rain had taken off , and the sun was setting with some wintry pomp -- when the current of my reflections was effectually changed by the arrival of two visitors in a gig . They were farmers of the neighbourhood , I suppose -- big , burly fellows in great-coats and top-boots , mightily flushed with liquor when they arrived , and , before they left , inimitably drunk . They stayed long in the kitchen with Burchell , drinking , shouting , singing , and keeping it up ; and the sound of their merry minstrelsy kept me a kind of company . The night fell , and the shine of the fire brightened and blinked on the panelled wall .