five o'clock
It was well-built , well-arranged , and had many conveniences I did not expect to find in a back-woods dwelling . She told me its timbers and covering were of well-seasoned yellow pine -- which will last for centuries -- and that it was built by a Yankee carpenter , whom they had '' ` ported '' from Charleston , paying his fare , and giving him his living , and two dollars and a half a day . It had cost as near as she `` cud reckon , ` bout two thousan ' dollars . '' It was five o'clock , when , shaking them warmly by the hand , I bade my pleasant friends `` good-bye , '' and mounting my horse rode off to the Colonel 's . -LSB- Footnote J : The whiskey was kept in a back room , above ground , because the dwelling had no cellar . The fluid was kept safely , under lock and key , and the farmer accounted for that , by saying that his negroes would steal nothing but whiskey . Few country houses at the South have a cellar -- that apartment deemed so essential by Northern housekeepers .