about four in the afternoon
Just when you wake from a dreamless sleep beneath the forest boughs , as the east begins to blaze , and the magpie gets musical , you dash to the embers of last night 's fire , and after blowing many fire-sticks find one which is alight , and proceed to send abroad on the morning breeze the scent of last night 's dottle . Then , when breakfast is over and the horses are caught up and saddled , and you are jogging across the plain , with the friend of your heart beside you , the burnt incense once more goes up , and conversation is unnecessary . At ten o'clock when you cross the creek -LRB- you always cross a creek about ten if you are in a good country -RRB- , you halt and smoke . So after dinner in the lazy noon-tide , one or perhaps two pipes are necessary , with , perhaps , another about four in the afternoon , and last , and perhaps best of all , are the three or four you smoke before the fire at night , when the day is dying and the opossums are beginning to chatter in the twilight . So that you find that a fig of Barret 's twist , seventeen to the pound , is gone in the mere hours of day-light without counting such a casualty as waking up cold in the night , and going at it again . So I lay on my back dreaming , wondering why a locust who was in full screech close by , took the trouble to make that terrible row when it was so hot , and hoping that his sides might be sore with the exertion , when to my great astonishment I heard the sound of feet brushing through the grass towards me . `` Black fellow , '' I said to myself ; but no , those were shodden feet that swept along so wearily .