noon
After that all was wretchedness . For many days she was on the tossing sea -- the sloop now scudding before the wind , now heaving on the troubled waters , now creeping along between desolate looking islands , now apparently lost amidst the boundless ocean . At length , soon after sunrise , one bright morning , the sail was taken in , and the vessel lay before the entrance of an harbour which looked like the mouth of a small river . At noon the sun beat hot on the deck of the sloop . In the afternoon the lady impatiently asked what they were waiting for -- if this really was , as she was told , their place of destination . The wind was not contrary ; what where they waiting for ? `` No , madam ; the wind is fair .