three o'clock
Thus they turned the whole neighbourhood into a `` bee . '' For this was Sanger , where small gatherings held the same place as the club , theatre and newspaper do in the lives of city folk . No matter what the occasion , a christening , wedding or funeral , a logging , a threshing , a home-coming or a parting , the finishing of a new house or the buying of a new harness or fanning-mill , any one of these was ample grounds for one of their `` talking bees '' ; so it was easy to set the wheels a-running . At three o'clock three processions might have been seen wending through the woods . One was from Burns 's , including the whole family ; one from Raften 's , comprising the family and the hired men ; one from Caleb 's , made up of Saryann and many of the Boyles . All brought baskets . They were seated in a circle on the pleasant grassy bank of the pond .