noon
But that was all . When breakfast was over I tried Dinkie with hot gruel , but he declined it . He refused to eat , in fact , and remembering what Peter had once said about my first-born being pantophagous , I began to suspect that I had a very sick boy on my hands . At noon , when he seemed no better , I made a mild mustard-plaster and put it on the upper part of his little chest . I let it burn there until he began to cry with the discomfort of it . Then I tucked a double fold of soft flannel above his thorax . As night came on he was more flushed and feverish than ever , and I wished to heaven that I 'd a clinic thermometer in the house .