about noon
`` You jest lay around in the sun , an ' you 'll feel better for it . '' `` Well , then , you and Henry can go out , '' insisted Dave . `` There is no reason why you should suck your thumbs waiting for me . '' At this the others demurred , but about noon , having had a lunch , Barringford and Henry set out , promising to return before sundown . They had not expected to hunt on this side of the river , but , now they were there , the old frontiersman said they might see what they could stir up . The camp had been pitched behind some bushes that fringed the river bank . Close at hand was a clump of trees , and back of these was the edge of the mighty forest , yet unspoiled by the ax of the pioneer .