noon
She looked for it now , saw it in bud -- three sturdy stalks sprouting at right angles from the wall and curving up parallel to it . Somehow or other she had come to associate this white freak of nature with herself -- she scarcely knew why . It comforted her , oddly , to see it again , still surviving , still delicately vigorous , though where among those stone slabs it found its nourishment she never could imagine . The intense blue of the sky had altered since noon ; the west became gradually duller and the air stiller ; and now , over the Gayfield hills , a tall cloud thrust up silvery-edged convolutions toward a zenith still royally and magnificently blue . * * * * * She had been sitting there watching her swimming cork for over an hour when the first light western breeze arrived , spreading a dainty ripple across the pond . Her cork danced , drifted ; beneath it she caught the momentary glimmer of the minnow ; then the cork was jerked under ; she clasped the pole with all her strength , struck upward ; and a heavy pickerel , all gold and green , sprang furiously from the water and fell back with a sharp splash . Under the sudden strain of the fish she nearly lost her balance , scrambled hastily down from the parapet , propping the pole desperately against her body , and stood so , unbending , unyielding , her eyes fixed on the water where the taut line cut it at forty-five degrees .