noon
An arrogant foreman bore down upon him , estimating his muscles with the eye of a recruiting-sergeant . Brown men and black men all about him were toiling away . He fled in terror . By noon he had reached the country of the plantations , the great , sad , silent levels bordering the mighty river . He overlooked fields of sugar-cane so vast that their farthest limits melted into the sky . The sugar-making season was well advanced , and the cutters were at work ; the waggons creaked drearily after them ; the Negro teamsters inspired the mules to greater speed with mellow and sonorous imprecations . Dark-green groves , blurred by the blue of distance , showed where the plantation-houses stood .