about four o'clock
There were a great many windfalls across the trail from the `` fort , '' to the stream ; we were an hour at least making the two miles , and the path along the bank was even worse , for freshets had lodged great quantities of drift stuff on the flats , so that , at last , we abandoned the trail altogether and took to the less obstructed woods , a little back from the banks . The stream is a pretty one , being here not above forty or fifty feet in width , running over a sandy bed , sometimes pebbles , and again bending around in a deep pool where there are trout of good size , or at least were then . It seemed a very long way to the opening ; the girls were becoming tired ; and we boys with the baskets had quite enough of it , long before we reached the ford which Addison and Thomas , who had been here before , remembered to be near two very tall pines . Several times we feared that we must have passed it ; but finally , at about four o'clock , the great bushy opening on the other side of the stream came in view . Immediately then Addison saw the pines , and taking off our boots and stockings , we all walked across on a sandy bar over which the water ran in a shallow , being nowhere over a foot deep . It was quite cold , however , so that we were glad to replace socks and boots , after crossing . The old slave 's cabins stood about two hundred yards from the brook and , as above described , were situated some twenty yards apart .