noon
The men who were digging the sewer , foreign men , Italians he had heard , sat on the banks of dry earth in the middle of the street . Their dinner pails were held between their legs and as they ate they talked in a strange language . He remembered the day he had come to Bidwell with his bride , the girl he had met on his trade journey and who had waited for him until he had mastered his trade and had a shop of his own . He had gone to New York State to get her and had arrived back in Bidwell at noon on just such another summer day . There had not been many people about , but every one had known him . On that day every one had been his friend . Birdie Spinks rushed out of his drug store and had insisted that he and his bride go home to dinner with him .