noon
But this was only in the morning . In the afternoon on many days of the summer which I spent at the Sunk Creek Ranch I would go shooting , or ride up toward the entrance of the canyon and watch the men working on the irrigation ditches . Pleasant systems of water running in channels were being led through the soil , and there was a sound of rippling here and there among the yellow grain ; the green thick alfalfa grass waved almost , it seemed , of its own accord , for the wind never blew ; and when at evening the sun lay against the plain , the rift of the canyon was filled with a violet light , and the Bow Leg Mountains became transfigured with hues of floating and unimaginable color . The sun shone in a sky where never a cloud came , and noon was not too warm nor the dark too cool . And so for two months I went through these pleasant uneventful days , improving the chickens , an object of mirth , living in the open air , and basking in the perfection of content . I was justly styled a tenderfoot . Mrs. Henry had in the beginning endeavored to shield me from this humiliation ; but when she found that I was inveterate in laying my inexperience of Western matters bare to all the world , begging to be enlightened upon rattlesnakes , prairie-dogs , owls , blue and willow grouse , sage-hens , how to rope a horse or tighten the front cinch of my saddle , and that my spirit soared into enthusiasm at the mere sight of so ordinary an animal as a white-tailed deer , she let me rush about with my firearms and made no further effort to stave off the ridicule that my blunders perpetually earned from the ranch hands , her own humorous husband , and any chance visitor who stopped for a meal or stayed the night .