summer noon
I do n't smoke myself , as a rule , but there have been times in my life when I required soothing , and then I have felt that a whiff of tobacco stills and softens one like the kiss of a little child . Bring this gentleman a pipe . '' Tom grunted , but took to the pipe kindly , and in a few minutes , during which Kenelm left him in silence , a lowering furrow between his brows smoothed itself away . Gradually he felt the sweetening influences of the day and the place , of the merry sunbeams at play amid the leaves of the arbour , of the frank perfume of the honeysuckle , of the warble of the birds before they sank into the taciturn repose of a summer noon . It was with a reluctant sigh that he rose at last , when Kenelm said , `` We have yet far to go : we must push on . '' The landlady , indeed , had already given them a hint that she and the family wanted to go to church , and to shut up the house in their absence . Kenelm drew out his purse , but Tom did the same with a return of cloud on his brow , and Kenelm saw that he would be mortally offended if suffered to be treated as an inferior ; so each paid his due share , and the two men resumed their wandering .