one o'clock
So exasperated did the farmers become at length , that a meeting was held at Brookfield , at which it was resolved to offer a reward of two hundred dollars , `` to any one killing the dog , _ or other animal _ , or giving such information as would lead to its discovery . '' The words `` or other animal '' had been inserted at the suggestion of a man who had heard unusual noises at night proceeding from the Oneida Swamp , a desolate , densely wooded tract of country , extending to within a mile or so of his dwelling . This circumstance had created in his mind the suspicion that the cause of all the trouble might not , after all , be a dog , but this he kept to himself . One morning my brother and I , with three others , started early for a day 's shooting and hunting in some woods three or four miles north of the village ; but having an engagement at home in the afternoon , I left the party soon after one o'clock . When within about two miles of the village I left the main road to take a short cut across the land of a man named John Vidler , an Englishman . During the early morning there had been a slight fall of snow , barely sufficient to cover the ground , but as it was so early in the season Vidler had not taken his few sheep into winter quarters . These I found apparently in a state of alarm , huddled together in a corner of a `` lot '' through which I had to pass .