noon
He was compelled to lie down and roll under the fence , in the most undignified manner , and , when he was through , there was the problem of getting upon his feet again . But he managed it somehow , and went on down the coulee , perspiring with the heat and a bitter realization of his ignominy . What the Happy Family would have to say when they saw him , even Andy Green 's vivid imagination declined to picture . He knew by the sun that it was full noon when he came in sight of the stable and corrals , and his soul sickened at the thought of facing that derisive bunch of punchers , with their fiendish grins and their barbed tongues . But he was hungry , and his arms had reached the limit of prickly sensations and were numb to his shoulders . He shook his hair back from his beaded forehead , cast a wary glance at the silent stables , set his jaw , and went on up the hill to the mess-house , wishing tardily that he had waited until they were off at work again , when he might intimidate old Patsy into keeping quiet about his predicament . Within the mess-house was the clatter of knives and forks plied by hungry men , the sound of desultory talk and a savory odor of good things to eat .