About noon
The next day the sun shone golden , the snow shone silvery , and Barnbury was like a paradise to the good baker . For the Widow Monk had told him he might come again , and that was almost the same thing as telling him that he and she would skip Christmas together ! And not a finger , so far , had he put to any Christmas order . About noon of that day , he was so happy , was that good baker , that he went into the village inn to have a taste of something hot . In the inn he found a tall man , with rings in his ears . A sun-browned man he was and a stranger , who had just arrived and wanted his dinner . He was also a handsome man , and a sailor , as any one could see .