noon
Along the top of the roof perched a row of whisky-jacks , most impertinent of birds , who , when a man has carried his food almost to his mouth , will flash down , light on his hand , and , before he knows that they have arrived , filch away the morsel . Somewhere across the river a whippoorwill kept on uttering its plaintive cry , as it were Beorn 's lost soul come back , pleading insistently for permission to take up its residence in his body once again . And over against the farther bank a brood of yellow ducklings swam in and out among the rushes , hidden behind which their mother watched and waited . The noon came on apace , the shadows shortened , and everything grew silent ; over forest and river a restful stillness settled down . If the Last Chance would always look like that it would be almost habitable . Had it been placed in any country where there were men , it would be considered beautiful just now . Ah , well , after he had been married a few years , he would have his children running hither and thither , laughing and chattering , about the Point ; then it would be in his own choice to make of his environment what he liked .