noon
Their cottage was silent and solitary ; the floor and furniture had not the appearance of any cottage in which Irish children are wont to amuse themselves . When they rose in the morning , a miserable stillness prevailed around them ; young voices were not heard -- laughing eyes turned not on their parents -- the melody of angry squabbles , as the urchins , in their parents ' fancy , cuffed and scratched each other -- half , or wholly naked among the ashes in the morning , soothed not the yearning hearts of Larry and his wife . No , no ; there was none of this . Morning passed in a quietness hard to be borne : noon arrived , but the dismal dreary sense of childlessness hung upon the house and their hearts ; night again returned , only to add its darkness to that which overshadowed the sorrowful spirits of this disconsolate couple . For the first two or three years , they bore this privation with a strong confidence that it would not last . The heart , however , sometimes becomes tired of hoping , or unable to bear the burthen of expectation , which time only renders heavier . They first began to fret and pine , then to murmur , and finally to recriminate .