ten o'clock
She toasted some bread before the fire , made a cup of tea , boiled an egg , and would not so much as set the table . As has been before stated , this is the way with women . And of the men , who shall tell the story of the pluck and endurance , of the unfailing good-will , of the resource in strange emergency , of the mutual help and common courage with which all the men worked that day on that well-nigh hopeless task of breaking open the highway from the Corners to the station ? Well-nigh hopeless , indeed ; for although at first , with fresh cattle and united effort , they made in the hours , which passed so quickly up to ten o'clock , near two miles headway , and had brought yesterday 's milk thus far , -- more than half way to their point of delivery , -- at ten o'clock it was quite evident that this sharp northwest wind , which told so heavily on the oxen and even on the men , was filling in the very roadway they had opened , and so was cutting them off from their base , and , by its new drifts , was leaving the roadway for to-day 's milk even worse than it was when they began . In one of those extemporized councils , then , -- such as fought the battle of Bunker Hill , and threw the tea into Boston harbor , -- it was determined , at ten o'clock , to divide the working parties . The larger body should work back to the Four Corners , and by proper relays keep that trunk line of road open , if they could ; while six yoke , with their owners , still pressing forward to the station , should make a new base at Lovejoy 's , where , when these oxen gave out , they could be put up at his barn . It was quite clear , indeed , to the experts that that time was not far distant .