midday
`` But '' -- he was positively frolicsome as he caught her hands and waved them back and forth , while he rocked his shoulders -- `` when you are stubborn , Mary , have your way . I will make your excuses . And I to work now . It is the hour of the hoe , '' as he called all hours except those of darkness and the hot midday . For Jasper Ewold was no idler in the affairs of his ranch or of the town . Few city men were so busy . His everlasting talk was incidental , like the babbling of a brook which , however , keeps steadily flowing on ; and the stored scholarship of his mind was supplemented by long evenings with no other relaxation but reading .