nearly noon
This he wanted for both his fish and his eggs . Then the two boys sat down to their feast , and ate and laughed and chatted , and enjoyed it so thoroughly that one of them at least thought nothing had ever tasted so good to him before . After breakfast , as there were no dishes to be washed , and nothing to be packed to carry with them , they were able to resume their journey at once . Until nearly noon they were hemmed in by the monotonous salt-marshes ; then they crossed a wide sheet of open water , and entered the mouth of a wild , dark river that flowed into it from the west . The rest of that day and most of the next was occupied in the ascent of this river , which ever grew darker and narrower as they neared its source . They worked incessantly at the paddles , and made such speed that Has-se said they must certainly overtake his people before they reached the land of the Alachuas . Several times during these two days he ran the canoe ashore at places that his keen vision noted as having been the landing-places of other canoes .