noon
There were certain days in her life , outwardly uneventful , which Alexandra remembered as peculiarly happy ; days when she was close to the flat , fallow world about her , and felt , as it were , in her own body the joyous germination in the soil . There were days , too , which she and Emil had spent together , upon which she loved to look back . There had been such a day when they were down on the river in the dry year , looking over the land . They had made an early start one morning and had driven a long way before noon . When Emil said he was hungry , they drew back from the road , gave Brigham his oats among the bushes , and climbed up to the top of a grassy bluff to eat their lunch under the shade of some little elm trees . The river was clear there , and shallow , since there had been no rain , and it ran in ripples over the sparkling sand . Under the overhanging willows of the opposite bank there was an inlet where the water was deeper and flowed so slowly that it seemed to sleep in the sun .