noon
`` I 'm sick of doing tame things all the time . '' The next time Nance saw Mac Clarke was toward the close of the summer . Through the long sweltering hours of an interminable August morning she had filed and chipped bottles with an accuracy and speed that no longer gave cause for criticism . The months of confinement were beginning to tell upon her ; her bright color was gone , and she no longer had the energy at the noon hour to go down the road to the elm-tree . She wanted above all things to stretch out at full length and rest her back and relax all those tense muscles that were so reluctantly learning to hold one position for hours at a time . At the noon hour she had the unexpected diversion of a visit from Birdie Smelts . Birdie had achieved her cherished ambition of going on the stage , and was now a chorus girl in the `` Rag Time Follies . ''