noon
`` I wonder , '' said Annie , `` when I shall ever have nicely starched clothes after these ? They had no starch in Natchez or Vicksburg when I was there . '' We are now furbishing up dresses suitable for such rough summer travel . While we sat at work yesterday the quiet of the clear , calm noon was broken by a low , continuous roar like distant thunder . To-day we are told it was probably cannon at Vicksburg . This is a great distance , I think , to have heard it -- over a hundred miles . H. and Max have bought a large yawl and are busy on the lake bank repairing it and fitting it with lockers .