noon
Noll looked after him , half determined to follow and demand what he meant , yet half dreading to learn that all his visions were a great way from the truth . Perhaps it would be better to wait , he thought ; night would bring the journey to an end , and then he should know all . So he did not follow the skipper , but kept his seat , while a great many shadowy forebodings crept into his heart , and he began to look back over the trackless waste which they had come , and wish , almost , that he was back in dear old Hastings -- in the old home where papa and he had spent so many happy hours -- and that Culm Rock was a myth . The sun rose royally up to noon , and odors of dinner began to ascend from the hatchway . Noll had a dinner of his own somewhere in a basket , which he brought forth and ate on the bale which served him for a seat , enjoying the novelty in spite of the anxious speculations concerning his new home in which he could not help indulging . After dinner the skipper was in better humor than ever , and took his turn at the helm . Noll , wandering about the deck , stopped to watch him , whereupon the master of the `` Gull '' good-naturedly answered all his questions , and even allowed him to take the tiller a few minutes , laughing the while at his white hands that could hardly grasp it .