noon
It was a pity the echoes from the boisterous laughter of the boys when he was out of hearing could not have reached the little traveller 's ears , but they did not , and Steve pressed on with good spirits feeling that he was almost in sight of his goal with less than a day 's journey before him . He turned at once from the road and went on and on , knowing as well as the crow how to keep straight with the compass , although like the crow he had never heard of one . The straight path took him quickly into the wilderness , but that did not dismay him as wilderness travel had become most familiar to him . At noon he began to feel so empty , he longed for just a little piece of corn bread . And then remembering that the mother thought he 'd get something to eat on the road he began looking cheerfully for the smoke of a cabin somewhere . He had been vaguely disappointed at striking no road anywhere , but he had not asked the boys any particulars as to the route . Everything so far in his journeying had been unexpected , and the possibilities of routes were so totally unknown to him that he had started on again , as when he left home , unquestioning .