six o'clock
`` We 'll put up the team , and then look round the place and see what needs doing first . '' It was an oppressive evening , after a day of unusual heat . Edgar sat smoking outside the homestead . He had been busy since six o'clock that morning , and he felt tired and downcast . Massed thunder-clouds brooded over the silent prairie , wheat and grass had faded to dingy green and lifeless gray , and Edgar tried to persuade himself that his moodiness was the effect of the weather . This was partly the case , but he was also suffering from homesickness and a shrinking from what was new and strange . The wooden house had a dreary , dilapidated look ; the weathered , neglected appearance of barns and stables was depressing .