eleven o'clock
Anyhow , 't is a fine day , and I hope next time you 'll come as one . '' Fancy was duly brought out and assisted into the vehicle , and the newly affianced youth and maiden passed up the steep hill to the Ridgeway , and vanished in the direction of Mellstock . It was a morning of the latter summer-time ; a morning of lingering dews , when the grass is never dry in the shade . Fuchsias and dahlias were laden till eleven o'clock with small drops and dashes of water , changing the colour of their sparkle at every movement of the air ; and elsewhere hanging on twigs like small silver fruit . The threads of garden spiders appeared thick and polished . In the dry and sunny places , dozens of long - legged crane-flies whizzed off the grass at every step the passer took . Fancy Day and her friend Susan Dewy the tranter 's daughter , were in such a spot as this , pulling down a bough laden with early apples .