noon
Sure he can smell thim the same as you an ' me kin see the red paint on their faces . '' `` I reckon that 's true , '' said Bill Cowan , with solemnity , and so he carried me off . At length the cattle were turned out to browse greedily through the clearing , while we lay in the woods by the forest and listened to the sound of their bells , but when they strayed too far , I was often sent to drive them back . Once when this happened I followed them to the shade at the edge of the woods , for it was noon , and the sun beat down fiercely . And there I sat for some time watching them as they lashed their sides with their tails and pawed the ground , for experience is a good master . Whether or not the flies were all that troubled them I could not tell , and no sound save the tinkle of their bells broke the noonday stillness . Making a circle I drove them back toward the fort , much troubled in mind .