midday
He was gone . The galloping feet of his horse were heard faint in the distance . She went back into the house and sat down , and wept galling tears of pride and vexation . At midday Parson Christian came home from the fields to dinner . `` I 've been away leading turf , '' he said , `` from Cole Moss , for Robin Atkinson , to pay him for loaning me his gray mare on Saturday when I fetched my grain to the mill . Happen most of it is burned up , though -- but that 's no fault of Robin 's . So now we neither owe t ` other anything , and we 're straight from the beginning of the world . ''