about four in the afternoon
` This seems one of the safest places on this very dangerous road . ' ` It makes a noise , ' he said , with a simplicity of awe that set my doubts at rest . The lad was but a child in intellect ; his mind was like his body , active and swift , but stunted in development ; and I began from that time forth to regard him with a measure of pity , and to listen at first with indulgence , and at last even with pleasure , to his disjointed babble . By about four in the afternoon we had crossed the summit of the mountain line , said farewell to the western sunshine , and began to go down upon the other side , skirting the edge of many ravines and moving through the shadow of dusky woods . There rose upon all sides the voice of falling water , not condensed and formidable as in the gorge of the river , but scattered and sounding gaily and musically from glen to glen . Here , too , the spirits of my driver mended , and he began to sing aloud in a falsetto voice , and with a singular bluntness of musical perception , never true either to melody or key , but wandering at will , and yet somehow with an effect that was natural and pleasing , like that of the of birds . As the dusk increased , I fell more and more under the spell of this artless warbling , listening and waiting for some articulate air , and still disappointed ; and when at last I asked him what it was he sang -- ` O , ' cried he , ` I am just singing ! '