about one o'clock
The road passes through Hitterdal and to the south of Lake Fol , traversing the southern part of the Telemark , and serving as an outlet to all the small towns and hamlets of that locality . An hour after their departure they passed the church of Hitterdal , an old and quaint edifice , surmounted with gables and turrets rising one above the other , without the slightest regard to anything like regularity of outline . The structure is of wood -- walls , roofs and turrets -- and though it strongly resembles a motley collection of pepper-boxes , it is really a venerable and venerated relic of the Scandinavian architecture of the thirteenth century . Night came on very gradually -- one of those nights still impregnated with a dim light which about one o'clock begins to blend with that of early dawn . Joel , enthroned upon the front seat , was absorbed in his reflections . Hulda sat silent and thoughtful in the interior of the carriage . But few words were exchanged between Sylvius Hogg and the postilion , and these were almost invariably requests to drive faster .