noon
Jones 's red steer -- it could n't have been the same red steer -- was continually breaking into Rooney 's ` whate an ' bringin ' ivery head av the other cattle afther him , and ruinin ' him intirely . ' The Rooneys and M'Kenzies were at daggers drawn , even to the youngest child , over the impounding of a horse belonging to Pat Rooney 's brother-in-law , by a distant relation of the M'Kenzies , which had happened nine years ago . The same sun-burned , masculine women went past to market twice a-week in the same old carts and driving much the same quality of carrion . The string of overloaded spring-carts , buggies , and sweating horses went whirling into town , to ` service ' , through clouds of dust and broiling heat , on Sunday morning , and came driving cruelly out again at noon . The neighbours ' sons rode over in the afternoon , as of old , and hung up their poor , ill-used little horses to bake in the sun , and sat on their heels about the verandah , and drawled drearily concerning crops , fruit , trees , and vines , and horses and cattle ; the drought and ` smut ' and ` rust ' in wheat , and the ` ploorer ' -LRB- pleuro-pneumonia -RRB- in cattle , and other cheerful things ; that there colt or filly , or that there cattle-dog -LRB- pup or bitch -RRB- o ' mine -LRB- or ` Jim 's ' -RRB- . They always talked most of farming there , where no farming worthy of the name was possible -- except by Germans and Chinamen . Towards evening the old local relic of the golden days dropped in and announced that he intended to ` put down a shaft ' next week , in a spot where he 'd been going to put it down twenty years ago -- and every week since .