noon
`` Because , '' and Henley glanced back as he was moving away , `` the Sunday-school hymn says , ` Kind words can never die , ' and I know old Wrinkle wo n't . '' As Henley , the axe in hand , approached the house , his stepfather-in-law , with considerable clatter , was hanging the horn on its nail . `` I noticed you was talkin ' to Dixie Hart at the fence , '' he said , as he discarded his quid of tobacco and stroked his grizzled chin , on which a week-old beard grew . `` Well , if I was n't no older 'n you are , an ' was as good-lookin ' , which maybe I ai n't , I 'd chin ` er over the fence mornin ' , noon , and night -- married or unmarried . Man laws was made to keep us straight , I reckon ; but when the Lord Himself lived on earth they was n't quite as bindin ' as folks try to make 'em now . A feller , in that day an ' time , could be introduced to a new wife every mornin ' at breakfast , if he could afford to keep a drove of 'em , and still be looked up to as a wise man and a prophet . '' `` Dixie was talking about buying a new axe , '' Henley answered , `` but I told her this one was good enough , and that I 'd make Pomp grind it . ''