noon
He resumed his paddling , his gray eyes alert . His aloneness and the bigness of the world in which , so far as he knew , he was the only human atom , did not weigh heavily upon him . He loved this bigness and emptiness and the glory of solitude . It was middle autumn , and close to noon of a day unmarred by cloud above , and warm with sunlight . He was following close to the west shore of the lake . The opposite shore was a mile away . He was so near to the rock-lined beach that he could hear the soft throat-cries of the moose-birds .