noon
He had a great deal to say , and was a long while away . It was an afternoon in the following winter in the pilot 's home . His wife was expecting him , and kept looking uneasily out of the window . He was to have been home by noon , and it was now beginning to get dark ; and the weather had been stormy the whole of the previous day . She gave up sewing , and sat thinking in the twilight , with the light playing over the floor from the door of the stove , where a little kettle was boiling , that she might have something warm ready for him at once when he came . It was too early to light a candle . Gjert was at school in Arendal , living at his aunt 's ; and Henrik was sitting by the light from the stove , cutting up a piece of wood into shavings .