noon
-- Shakspeare . The curtain of our imperfect drama must fall , to rise upon another scene . The time is advanced several days , during which very material changes had occurred in the situation of the actors . The hour is noon , and the place an elevated plain , that rose , at no great distance from the water , somewhat abruptly from a fertile bottom , which stretched along the margin of one of the numberless water-courses of that region . The river took its rise near the base of the Rocky Mountains , and , after washing a vast extent of plain , it mingled its waters with a still larger stream , to become finally lost in the turbid current of the Missouri . The landscape was changed materially for the better ; though the hand , which had impressed so much of the desert on the surrounding region , had laid a portion of its power on this spot . The appearance of vegetation was , however , less discouraging than in the more sterile wastes of the rolling prairies .