five in the morning
That Miss Belcher would acquire the place no one doubted . Still , a public sale it had to be . Early in the afternoon of the 5th , she left us for Plymouth , to make arrangements for the bidding . I did not see her depart , having been occupied since five in the morning in a glorious otter-hunt , for which Mr. Rogers had brought over his hounds . The heat of the day found us far up-stream , and a good ten miles from home ; and by the time Mr. Rogers had returned his pack to Miss Belcher 's hospitable kennels the sun was low in the west . I know nothing that will make a man more honestly dirty than a long otter-hunt , followed by a perspiring tramp along a dusty road . From feet to waist I was a cake of dried mud overlaid with dust .