noon
`` We see the mirage , and not the thing itself . Hopes loom up and look real , when they 're just false . It 's a great thing to be able to tell the differences between what is real and what is just a mirage . '' The wind fell away to a dead calm before noon , and though Abel and Skipper Ed worked at their heavy sculling oars , and Bobby and Jimmy and Mrs. Abel at the other oars , the boats , laden as they were , and retarded by the skiffs in tow , made such slow progress that at length they stopped at a convenient island to boil the kettle and cook their dinner and wait for a returning breeze . Dinner was a jolly feast , simple as it was , for in this land folk live upon simple food and are satisfied with little variety , for their appetites and desires are not glutted , as ours so often are . And many things that you and I deem necessary they do not miss , because they have never had them , and more often than not have never so much as heard of them . And perhaps it is just as well , and their happiness is just as complete .