noon
`` The warehouses are piles of ashes . Poor father will have lost everything , but I am young and strong and can help him anew . '' `` Thou art a good son , Pierre , '' exclaimed Wenonah . Many had been routed out without any breakfast , and now it was high noon . Children were clamoring for something to eat . The farmers spread food here and there on the grass and invited the hungry ones . Jacques Giradin , the chief baker in the town , had kneaded his bread and put it in the oven , then gone to help his neighbors .