about eleven o'clock
And that morning the sylvan wilds were kept resounding with the heart-easing , blithesome music which bespoke the thankfulness and the gladness of the singer 's heart . It was the happiest morning he had ever known in all his life , and yet , despite an unaccountable accident of birth that had brought into the world so noble a soul with an ebony hide and fleecy head , the poor fellow had known a thousand mornings nearly as happy . He was having his reward . But at about eleven o'clock the singing suddenly ceased -- so suddenly , indeed , that any one who might have been listening would have said , `` Assuredly something unusual has happened to Burlman Reynolds ; something has struck him -- perhaps an Indian bullet . '' But when , in answer to the dinner-horn , the plowman came riding slowly home , it was evident from his unwonted seriousness of look and manner that a thought had struck the mind , not a bullet the body of Burlman Reynolds . It was further evident from the absent-minded way in which he fed Cornwallis , throwing him two dozen instead of one dozen ears of corn ; and further still , from the absent-minded way in which he fed himself , leaving his bacon untoasted and eating nothing but bonny-clabber and corn-dodgers . Nor again that day was there an echo in the woods to tell that Big Black Burl was at his cheerful labors in the field .