noon
It made its skinny arms so long , and waved them so frighteningly , that the children ran as hard as they could towards the road by which carts used to come to the gravel-pits . Only Anthea had presence of mind enough to shout a timid ` Good-morning , I hope your whisker will be better to-morrow , ' as she ran . On the road they turned and looked back , and they had to shut their eyes , and open them very slowly , a little bit at a time , because the sight was too dazzling for their eyes to be able to bear it . It was something like trying to look at the sun at high noon on Midsummer Day . For the whole of the sand-pit was full , right up to the very top , with new shining gold pieces , and all the little sand-martins ' little front doors were covered out of sight . Where the road for the carts wound into the gravel-pit the gold lay in heaps like stones lie by the roadside , and a great bank of shining gold shelved down from where it lay flat and smooth between the tall sides of the gravel-pit . And all the gleaming heap was minted gold .