midday
Holding Noie by the hand she wound in and out between the tree-trunks without stumbling or even striking her foot against a root . For an hour or more they walked on this , the strangest of strange journeys , till at length Rachel whispered ; `` Something tells me to stay here , '' and she leaned against a tree and stayed , while Noie , who was tired , sat down between the jutting roots of the tree . It was a dead tree , and the top of it had been torn off in some hurricane so that they could see the sky above them , and by the grey hue of it knew that it was drawing near to dawn . The sun rose , and its arrows , that even at midday could never pass the canopy of foliage , shot straight and vivid between the tall bare trunks . Oh ! Rachel knew the place . It was that place which she had dreamed of as a child in the island of the flooded river .