four
o'clock
We were n't going in very deep ; Dove and Beadle 's lots lay about thirty miles from the nearest house ; and a straggling , lonely sort of place that was too , five miles out of the village , with nobody but a dog and a deaf old woman in it . Sometimes , as I was telling you , we had been in a hundred miles from any human creature but ourselves . It took us two days to get there though , with the oxen ; and the teams were loaded down well , with so many axes and the pork-barrels ; -- I do n't know anything like pork for hefting down more than you expect it to , reasonable . It was one of your ugly gray days , growing dark at four o'clock , with snow in the air , when we hauled up in the lonely place . The trees were blazed pretty thick , I remember , especially the pines ; Dove and Beadle always had that done up prompt in October . It 's pretty work going in blazing while the sun is warm , and the woods like a great bonfire with the maples . I used to like it , but your mother would n't hear of it when she could help herself , it kept me away so long .