noon
As they are not good for food , only one or two were shot , as curiosities . Cranes stalked along on their long , slender legs in the marshy places , while snipe and many similar birds ran rapidly along the sandy shores . The ducks were everywhere , and so the shooting was everything that our enthusiastic hunters could desire . The Indians , toward noon , began to get uneasy about the return trip , on account of the effects of the sun 's rays and the south winds on the ice . They suggested an early start , but so fascinated had the boys become in the shooting that they kept putting it off from hour to hour . However , the return trip was at length begun , and then the boys saw the wisdom of the Indians ' suggestion for an earlier start , and heartily wished they had agreed to it . Playgreen Lake , which in the morning seemed still one great mass of glittering ice , now appeared half broken up .