midday
Now he had reached the further end of the ridge . He lay down in the ditch to recover his breath after his long walk ; he was tired and hungry , but in excellent spirits . Down there at his feet , only half a mile distant , lay the town . There was a cheerful glitter about it ; from its hundreds of fireplaces the smoke of midday fires curled upward into the blue sky , and the red roofs laughed roguishly into the beaming face of the day . Pelle immediately began to count the houses ; not wishing to exaggerate , he had estimated them at a million only , and already he was well into the first hundred . But in the midst of his counting he jumped up . What did the people down there get for dinner ?