six o'clock
I was `` as good as new '' then ; and , after we had dined , I put up a table , and made a couple of stools . During the day , we met two steamboats , and passed a huge flat-boat loaded with grain ; but no one on board of them seemed to take any particular notice of us . Every kind of a craft is seen on the great western rivers , and none is so strange as to excite a sensation in the mind of the beholder . At six o'clock we had been afloat about twenty hours ; and , according to my estimate , it was nearly time for us to see the Mississippi . The Wisconsin had widened as we advanced , and I was sure that we should be in the great river before midnight . After supper , I discussed with Sim the subject of keeping watch during the night , and we decided that four hours were enough for each of us to steer at one time . But we had no means of measuring time in the night , and we could only guess at the length of the watch .