six o'clock
The place was decorated with sheaves of wheat , oats and barley , with great stacks of green and yellowing corn standing in the four corners . The platform was filled with chairs and hung with lanterns , some of them made from hollowed-out gourds and pumpkins , to carry out the harvest idea . After the reading of Hiawatha the platform was to be cleared and the young people were to have a dance . The invitations to the feast read for six o'clock . At seven a dozen open wood fires were roasting the green ears of corn for more than a hundred guests . The long tables under the trees in the yard were laden with every kind of delicious food . But Madge wished the feast was over and her poem read .