four o'clock
When the sky went heavy at noon it looked more like a spring shower than a snow-storm ; only , I noticed over at the government building they were flying a black flag splashed with a red centre . I had not seen it before for years , and I asked for ploughs on every train out after two o'clock . `` Even then there was no wickedness abroad ; it was coming fairly heavy in big flakes , but lying quiet as apple-blossoms . Toward four o'clock I left the office for the roundhouse , and got just about half-way across the yard when the wind veered like a scared semaphore . I had left the depot in a snow-storm ; I reached the roundhouse in a blizzard . `` There was no time to wait to get back to the keys . I telephoned orders over from the house , and the boys burned the wires , east and west , with warnings .