noon
How well do I remember the time -- oh , so long ago ! -- when for some reason or other I happened to have his boat instead of my own , one day , with one of the boys of the village , to go to Matamet , twelve miles off , to visit certain lobster-pots which we had set . We were delayed there by breaking our boom , in jibing . We should have been at home at noon ; at seven in the evening we were not yet in sight . When we got in , rather crestfallen at our disaster , particularly as the boat was wanted for the next day , James met us at the pier . We were boys then , and his tongue was free . As he stood there on the shore , bare-headed , hastily summoned from his house , with his hair blowing in the wind , waving his hands and addressing first us and then a knot of men who stood smoking by , no words of censure were too harsh , no comment on our carelessness too cutting , no laments too keen over the irreparable loss of that particular boom .