About noon
He gave his pipe to Maciek and returned to the cottage . ` They are quick folk , those Swabians , ' he muttered , ` and clever ! ' Within half an hour he had discovered the two secrets of modern work : organization and speed . About noon two colonists came to the gospodarstwo and asked Slimak to sell them butter and potatoes and hay . He let them have the former without bargaining , but he refused the hay . ` Let us at least have a cartload of straw , ' they asked with their foreign accent . ` I wo n't .