noon
It was a new world , indeed , that David created for Joe after that -- a world that had to do with entrancing music where once was silence ; delightful companionship where once was loneliness ; and toothsome cookies and doughnuts where once was hunger . The Widow Glaspell , Joe 's mother , worked out by the day , scrubbing and washing ; and Joe , perforce , was left to the somewhat erratic and decidedly unskillful ministrations of Betty . Betty was no worse , and no better , than any other untaught , irresponsible twelve-year-old girl , and it was not to be expected , perhaps , that she would care to spend all the bright sunny hours shut up with her sorely afflicted and somewhat fretful brother . True , at noon she never failed to appear and prepare something that passed for a dinner for herself and Joe . But the Glaspell larder was frequently almost as empty as were the hungry stomachs that looked to it for refreshment ; and it would have taken a far more skillful cook than was the fly-away Betty to evolve anything from it that was either palatable or satisfying . With the coming of David into Joe 's life all this was changed . First , there were the music and the companionship .