noon
A woman never quite knows a man until she has lived with him and day by day unearthed his little idiosyncrasies . She may seem close to him , in those earlier days of romance , but she never really knows him , any more than a sparrow on a telegraph wire knows the Morse Code thrilling along under its toes ! Men have so many little kinks and turns , even the best of them . I tacked oil-cloth on a shoe-box and draped chintz around it , and fixed a place for Dinky-Dunk to wash , in the bedroom , when he comes in at noon . At night I knew it would be impossible , for he 's built a little wash-house with old binder-carrier canvas nailed to four posts , and out there Olie and he strip every evening and splash each other with horse-pails full of well-water . Dinky-Dunk is clean , whatever he may be , but I thought it would look more civilized if he 'd perform his limited noonday ablutions in the bedroom . He did it for one day , in pensive silence , and then sneaked the wash-things back to the rickety old bench outside the door .