noon
The other wood-cutters had families . They had to pass his lot on their way out to the open road . Barney would either retreat farther among the snowy thickets , or else work with such fury that he could seem not to see them as they filed past . Often he did not go home at noon , and ate nothing from morn until night . He cut wood many days that winter when the other men thought the weather too severe and sat huddled over their fires in their homes , shoving their chairs this and that way at their wives ' commands , or else formed chewing and gossiping rings within the glowing radius of the red-hot store stove . `` See Barney Thayer goin ' cross lots with his axe as I come by , '' one said to another , rolling the tobacco well back into his grizzled cheek . `` Works as if he was possessed , '' was the reply , in a half-inarticulate , gruff murmur .