noon
Sarah 's friends had been out in Springfield for a visit . They had invested money in the business . Her brother had decided to bring his family West and settle in Sangamon County . The lovers stopped in a grove at noon and fed their horses and Harry , who had a bundle of Joe 's lucifer matches in his pocket -- a gift from Samson -- built a fire and made a broach of green sticks on which he broiled beef steak . A letter from Harry to Sarah Traylor tells of the beauty of the day -- of blue bells and scarlet lilies in the meadow grass , of the whistling quail , of pigeons and wild geese flying across the sky and of his great joy in seeing again the vast sunlit reaches of the level , virgin lands . * * * * * `` It was my great day of fulfillment , all the dearer because I had come back to health and youth and beloved scenes out of those years shadowed with loneliness and despair , '' he writes . `` The best part of it , I assure you , was the face I loved and that musical voice ringing like a bell in merry laughter and in the songs which had stirred my heart in the days of its tender youth .