nearly three o'clock
One man said it was getting towards the long days and the short nights now . T'other one said _ this _ war n't one of the short ones , he reckoned -- and then they laughed , and he said it over again , and they laughed again ; then they waked up another fellow and told him , and laughed , but he did n't laugh ; he ripped out something brisk , and said let him alone . The first fellow said he ` lowed to tell it to his old woman -- she would think it was pretty good ; but he said that war n't nothing to some things he had said in his time . I heard one man say it was nearly three o'clock , and he hoped daylight would n't wait more than about a week longer . After that the talk got further and further away , and I could n't make out the words any more ; but I could hear the mumble , and now and then a laugh , too , but it seemed a long ways off . I was away below the ferry now . I rose up , and there was Jackson 's Island , about two mile and a half down stream , heavy timbered and standing up out of the middle of the river , big and dark and solid , like a steamboat without any lights .