eight o'clock
You just tell him you 're a friend of mine , and I 'll bet my steers agin a coon skin you 're at home straight . '' Soon after supper Ralph was shown to his bed in a shed room at the rear of the house . In the mountains the people go to bed and rise early from habit . Before eight o'clock a sound of heavy breathing could be heard from every room . Under the floor the very dogs were steeped in dreams of coon and ` possum hunting . Suddenly Ralph awoke , feeling a pressure on his chest . The room was not so dark but that he could detect a shadowy figure at the bedside .