seven o'clock
The passionate youth in him responded to the beauty of it ; he felt it lay hold on him and he would have sung , but he found no words in all his college-born songs to tell of this new joy . `` I did n't know it _ could _ be so beautiful . I did n't know , '' he said again and again . At the seven o'clock whistle of a mill he wheeled about toward the town , and saw there , almost overhanging it , the mountain , bright in the morning , streaked with white , lifting a rugged head through the gray-green poncho of its cedar robe , a wondrous pile capped by the one lone tower that watched , forever watched , above the vast expanse of plains . Jim was nearly back to the town when a horse and rig appeared coming rapidly toward him . He heard a shout and saw a man run from a house to look . The horse was going very fast and shaking his head ; something was wrong .