noon
Always he found the forest empty . Everything , well ordered , was in its accustomed place . He returned to the canoe , shaking his head , unable to rid himself of the sensation of something foreign to the established order of things . At noon the men drew ashore on a little point of rock . There they boiled tea over a small fire , and ate the last of their pilot 's bread , together with bacon and the cold meat of partridges . By now the sun was high and the air warm . Tepid odours breathed from the forest , and the songs of familiar homely birds .