dawn,
about two o'clock
Spinning-wheel and carding-combs were in their place ; the beads , too , were safe as they had been , stowed away in a bag under the roof . Inger had taken nothing of her belongings . But Isak , unthinkably simple as he was , grew afraid of the dark in the light summer nights , and saw Shapes and Things stealing past the window . He got up before dawn , about two o'clock by the light , and ate his breakfast , a mighty dish of porridge to last the day , and save the waste of time in cooking more . In the evening he turned up new ground , to make a bigger field for the potatoes . Three days he worked with spade and ax by turns ; Inger should be coming on the next . ` Twould be but reasonable to have a platter of fish for her when she came -- but the straight road to the water lay by the way she would come , and it might seem ... .