noon
`` A feller kai n't promise thet he wo n't go crazy , '' she declared . `` But ef ever I does go so crazy es ter wed with a man , thet man 'll tek my surname an ' our children 'll tek hit too , an ' w ` ar hit ` twell they dies . '' Brent had wondered how the Parson and his exhausted companions would , in the short time at their disposal , be able to call out a new force of volunteers . If the dam gave way and the rafts were swept out the thing would probably happen by noon and there were few telephones in this sparsely peopled community . Yet the device was simple and one of pioneer directness . In many of those households to which the tired workers returned , there were brothers or sons who had heretofore stayed at home . Those who had responded to the first call were all men who were not afraid of toil , but those who might answer the second would be men who courted the hazards of adventure .