noon
I wonder how he come t ' be takin ' ` is man along t ' town with ` im ? Th ' was a trunk in th ' back of the sled too , but that may ` a ' been for Mrs. Hunter . That was ` is mother with ` im . '' There was not much time to speculate about future work , there was much to be done in the present , and before noon five limp bodies had been dragged from the pens to the scalding barrel , plunged into the steaming water , turned , twisted , turned again , and after being churned back and forth till every inch of the black hides was ready to shed its coat of hair and scarf-skin , were drawn out upon the wheelbarrow . Then a gambol-stick was thrust through the tendons of the hind legs and the hogs were suspended from a cross pole about six feet from the ground , where they hung while the great corn-knives scraped and scratched and scrubbed and scoured till the black bodies gradually lost their coating and became pink and tender looking and perfectly clean . They were then drawn and left to cool and stiffen . The sloppy , misty weather made the work hard because of the frozen earth under the melting snow , and the steaming , half foggy atmosphere was too warm for comfort of men working over an open fire and a steaming barrel of hot water , but by noon the butchering was finished .