noon
`` There , sir , sit you there , and I will sit here beside you -- you desire to hear of Colonel John Moredock . Well , a day in my boyhood is marked with a white stone -- the day I saw the colonel 's rifle , powder-horn attached , hanging in a cabin on the West bank of the Wabash river . I was going westward a long journey through the wilderness with my father . It was nigh noon , and we had stopped at the cabin to unsaddle and bait . The man at the cabin pointed out the rifle , and told whose it was , adding that the colonel was that moment sleeping on wolf-skins in the corn-loft above , so we must not talk very loud , for the colonel had been out all night hunting -LRB- Indians , mind -RRB- , and it would be cruel to disturb his sleep . Curious to see one so famous , we waited two hours over , in hopes he would come forth ; but he did not . So , it being necessary to get to the next cabin before nightfall , we had at last to ride off without the wished-for satisfaction .