noon
The water was low , and the cleft therefore enlarged , so that he saw at once that now was the time for making his fire -- now when there was the freest access for the air . Yet he could not help pausing to admire what he saw . He could see now a long strip of the fiord , -- a perspective of waters and of shores , ending in a lofty peak still capped with snow , and glittering in the sunlight . The whole landscape was bathed in light , as warm as noon ; for , though it was only six in the morning , the sun had been up for several hours . As Rolf gazed , and reckoned up the sum of what he saw , -- the many miles of water , and the long range of rocks , he felt , for a moment , as if not yet secure from Hund , -- as if he must be easily visible while he saw so much . But it was not so , and Rolf smiled at his own momentary fear , when he remembered how , as a child , he had tried to count the stars he could see at once through a hole pricked by a needle in a piece of paper , and how , for that matter , all that we ever see is through the little circle of the pupil of the eye . He smiled when he considered that while , from his recess , he could see the united navy of Norway and Denmark , if anchored in the fiord , his enemy could not see even his habitation , otherwise than by peeping under the bushes which overhung the cleft -- and this only at low-water ; so he began to sing , while rubbing together , with all his might , the dry sticks of fir with which his fire was to be kindled .