noon
But when he got there , all the people he met -- the very children at the doors -- seemed to view him with suspicion . Back he turned again , without the courage to purchase bit or drop , though he had tasted no food for many hours ; and once more he lingered on the Heath , uncertain where to go . He wandered over miles and miles of ground , and still came back to the old place . Morning and noon had passed , and the day was on the wane , and still he rambled to and fro , and up and down , and round and round , and still lingered about the same spot . At last he got away , and shaped his course for Hatfield . It was nine o'clock at night , when the man , quite tired out , and the dog , limping and lame from the unaccustomed exercise , turned down the hill by the church of the quiet village , and plodding along the little street , crept into a small public-house , whose scanty light had guided them to the spot . There was a fire in the tap-room , and some country-labourers were drinking before it .