noon
`` John , '' cried Aunt Deborah gayly , `` do n't let 's worry one bit about this old world ! With these young folks to write the books , and teach the schools , and take care of the homeless babies , we 're safe for years to come ! Come and tell me all about the wheat . '' So the morning passed , and at noon Malcolm and Donald , Jack and Carver rode over for dinner , and for Aunt Deborah 's stories , which Virginia had promised them . Aunt Deborah 's talent for listening won them also , and they told her their ambitions quite as eagerly as the Vigilantes had done . All but Malcolm -- he was strangely silent ! Dinner was served on the lawn beneath the cottonwoods .