noon
The prospect of being fifty miles nearer home before nightfall lightened their hearts and they laughed freely while Abe told of his adventures in the campaign . To him it was all a wild comedy with tragic scenes dragged into it and woefully out of place . Indeed he thought it no more like war than a pig sticking and that was the kind of thing he hated . At noon they put ashore and sat on a grassy bank in the shade of a great oak , to escape the withering sunlight of that day late in July , while they ate their luncheon . `` I reckon that the Black Hawk peril was largely manufactured , '' said Abe as they sat in the cool shade . `` If they had been let alone I do n't believe the Indians would have done any harm . It reminds me a little of the story of a rich man down in Lexington who put a cast iron buck in his dooryard .