noon
Before the church a gang of boys had sprung up from their whittling to be our gleeful spectators . Hardy waved them off with the assurance that we wanted neither their help nor company , and though the trail took us at slackened speed around two sides of the building we passed and were gone while the worshippers were in the first stanza of a hymn started to keep them on their benches . Noon , afternoon ; we made no pause . `` It 's ketch 'em before night , '' said Hardy as we bent low under beech boughs , `` or not till noon to-morrow . '' About mid-afternoon one of the court-house boys , who had been talking softly with the other , turned back with a bare good-by . His friend explained : `` Got to be at his desk early in the morning . But I 'm with you till you run 'em down . ''