noon
Our ferocious bulls , subdued enough by this time , were probably warming each other 's backs . ` This 'll take the bile out of ` em ! ' Fuchs remarked gleefully . At noon that day the hens had not been heard from . After dinner Jake and Otto , their damp clothes now dried on them , stretched their stiff arms and plunged again into the drifts . They made a tunnel through the snow to the hen-house , with walls so solid that grandmother and I could walk back and forth in it . We found the chickens asleep ; perhaps they thought night had come to stay .