seven o'clock in the morning
This threat did not seem to frighten the giant to any great extent . However , Mrs. Weldon took him aside and told him that , perhaps , he might allow his big baby to run to the right and left , but on condition that he did not lose sight of him . It would not do to completely sever Cousin Benedict from the pleasures so natural to his age . At seven o'clock in the morning , the little troop took up their journey toward the east , preserving the order of march that had been adopted the previous day . It was always the forest . On this virgin soil , where the heat and the moisture agreed to produce vegetation , it might well be thought that the reign of growth appeared in all its power . The parallel of this vast plateau was almost confounded with tropical latitudes , and , during certain months in summer , the sun , in passing to the zenith , darted its perpendicular rays there .