two o'clock
The only corn to be seen was of the variety called sod-corn , which , unwashed by rain for a full month now , had failed to mature , such stalks as had tasselled at all being as barren as the rest because the tender silks had dried too rapidly and could furnish no fertilizing moisture to the pollen which sifted down from the scanty bloom above . The sun 's rays beat down upon the head of a fourteen-year-old girl who rode slowly around a herd of cattle , the members of which lay in the unavailing shade of the rosin weeds or browsed drowsily on the short grass . The day had been long and hard . The child knew that it was not later than two o'clock , having counted the hours eagerly since early morning , and having eaten her bit of cornbread and bacon full two hours before . She stopped her horse for the fortieth time , however , to get the angle of her shadow on the ground and to confirm her calculations . The sigh she gave as she again started on her round was not of relief , but of resignation . It was necessary to keep on the move or she was likely to fall asleep in her saddle , and then the cattle would escape to the nearby fields , and there would be a neighbourhood altercation over the matter , whether the fields held crops of value or not , farmers being jealous of their territorial rights , and ready to resent intrusion upon them .