the midday sun
Only that over it , as over all the world behind it , there might be builded homes . For , as he reflected , the adventurers of the earth had always been also the home-builders ; and there followed for him the bitter personal corollary that all his adventure was come to naught if there could be no home as its ultimate reward . His vague eye swam over the wide , gray sea about him , and to himself he seemed adrift , unanchored and with no chart of life . Lifting and shimmering mysteriously in the midday sun , as though tantalizing any chance traveller of that wide land with a prospect alluring , yet impossible , the buildings of the Halfway station now loomed large and dark , now sank until they seemed a few broken dots and dashes just visible upon the wide gray plain . Yet soon the tall frame of the windmill showed high above the earth , most notable landmark for many a mile , and finally the ragged arms of the corral posts appeared definitely , and then the low peak of the roof of the main building . For miles these seemed to grow no closer , but the steady trot of the little horses ate up the distance , and Franklin found himself again at the spot with which he was already so well acquainted that every detail , every low building and gnarled bit of wood , was tabulated surely in his mind . The creak of the windmill presently came to his ears as a familiar sound , but rasping and irritating on his strong nerves as the croak of the elder Fate .