about four o'clock
`` Ever been in Elkington before ? '' I said I had n't . `` Well , a drive will do you good . '' It was about four o'clock on a mild October afternoon . The little town , of fifteen thousand inhabitants or so , had a wonderful setting in the widening valley of the Scopanong , whose swiftly running waters furnished the power for the mills . We drove to these through a gateway over which the words `` No Admittance '' were conspicuously painted , past long brick buildings that bordered the canals ; and in the windows I caught sight of drab figures of men and women bending over the machines . Half of the buildings , as Mr. Hutchins pointed out , were closed , -- mute witnesses of tariff-tinkering madness .