noon
The sunny side of the hill that sloped down to Rainbow Bottom was a mass of spring beauties , anemones , and violets ; thread-like ramps rose rank to the scent among them , and round ginger leaves were thrusting their folded heads through the mold . The Kingfisher was cleaning his house and fishing from his favorite stump in the river , while near him , at the fall of every luckless worm that missed its hold on a blossom-whitened thorn tree , came the splash of the great Black Bass . Every morning the Bass took a trip around Horseshoe Bend food hunting , and the small fry raced for life before his big , shear-like jaws . During the heat of noon he lay in the deep pool below the stump , and rested ; but when evening came he set out in search of supper , and frequently he felt so good that he leaped clear of the water , and fell back with a splash that threw shining spray about him , or lashed out with his tail and sent widening circles of waves rolling from his lurking place . Then the Kingfisher rattled with all his might , and flew for the tunnel in the embankment . Some of these days the air was still , the earth warmed in the golden sunshine , and murmured a low song of sleepy content . Some days the wind raised , whirling dead leaves before it , and covering the earth with drifts of plum , cherry , and apple bloom , like late falling snow .