About eleven o'clock
And I count on you to take out enough fox and mink pelts to pay me for my game -- and you yourselves for your labor ; for though it is my game by the law of the land , what is mine is no source of pleasure to me unless I share it . Let us work together to keep the streams and coverts and forests well stocked . Good-night . '' About eleven o'clock that evening Abe Storm slunk into the store , and the community rose and fell on him and administered the most terrific beating that a husky young man ever emerged from alive . In October the maple leaves fell , the white birches showered the hill-sides with crumpled gold , the ruffed grouse put on its downy stockings , the great hare 's flanks became patched with white . Cold was surely coming ; somewhere behind the blue north the Great White Winter stirred in its slumber . As yet , however , the oaks and beeches still wore their liveries of rustling amber , the short grass on hill-side pastures was intensely green , flocks of thistle-birds disguised in demure russet passed in wavering flight from thicket to thicket , and over all a hot sun blazed in a sky of sapphire , linking summer and autumn together in the magnificence of a perfect afternoon .