noon
Even here , progress was difficult . The stalks were tough and tangled and mixed with stiff , dwarf scrub , which grew in some spots almost to one 's waist . There were little rises , and hollows into which the wagons jolted violently , and here and there they must skirt a bluff or strike back into the cut-up trail which traversed it . Toward noon they reached a larger wood , where the trees crowded thick upon the track . When Edgar floundered into it , there appeared to be no bottom . Getting back to the grass , he surveyed the scene with strong disgust ; he had not quite got over his English fastidiousness . Leafless branches met above the trail , and little bays strewn with trampled brush which showed where somebody had tried to force a drier route , indented the ranks of slender trunks .