midday
`` For a young man with a delicate appetite , you do very well , '' laughed the Professor . `` It wag less than two months ago , if I remember correctly , that the doctors thought you were not going to live , you were so delicate . '' `` Almost as delicate as Chunky now , '' chuckled Ned maliciously . The midday meal was more successful than had been their breakfast . They ate it under the trees , deciding to dine in the parlor tent just at dusk . The afternoon was spent in shooting , at which the boys were becoming quite proficient . By this time , even Stacy Brown could be trusted to manage his own rifle without endangering the lives of his companions .