noon
During the next three days four hundred sheep were clipped and anointed . Jacky helped clip , but he would not wear gloves , and George would not let him handle the ointment without them , suspecting mercury . At last George yielded to Abner 's remonstrances , and left off shearing and anointing . Abner altered his opinion when one day he found a sheep rubbing like mad against a tree , and before noon half a dozen at the same game . Those two wretched sheep had tainted the flock . Abner hung his head when he came to George with this ill-omened news . He expected a storm of reproaches .