noon sun
So with a gay exchange of badinage they took their turns when the dogs rounded up singles ; and sometimes he missed shamefully , and sometimes he performed with credit , but she never amended his misses nor did more than match his successes , and he thought that in all his life he had never witnessed more faultless field courtesy than this young girl instinctively displayed . Nothing in the world could have touched him more keenly or convinced him more thoroughly . For it is on the firing line that character shows ; a person is what he is in the field -- even though he sometimes neglects to live up to it in less vital moments . Generous and quick in her applause , sensitive under his failures , cool in difficulties , yielding instantly the slightest advantage to him , holding her fire when singles rose or where there could be the slightest doubt -- that was his shooting companion under the white noon sun that day . He noticed , too , her sweetness with the dogs , her quick encouragement when work was well done , her brief rebuke when the red dog , galloping recklessly down wind , jumped a ground-rattler and came within a hair 's breadth of being bitten . `` The little devil ! '' said Hamil , looking down at the twisting reptile which he had killed with a palmetto stem .