midday
How he contrived to eke out subsistence was difficult to conceive . To the tavern he had been almost the only customer , and in succession consumed the little stores his poor wife had managed to accumulate . He appeared to feel a kind of semi-consciousness that if `` bears did not fall in his way '' during the winter , it might go hard with him ; and he pointed to four mounds of earth behind the log-hut , and said that `` the biggest would soon be alongside of 'em . '' As the heat of midday was too great to proceed in , I learned from him thus much of his own story , and some particulars of the road to Bexar , whither I had now resolved on proceeding , since , according to his opinion , that afforded me a far better chance of coming up with the expedition than by following their steps to Austin . `` Had you come a few hours earlier to-day , '' said he , `` you could have joined company with a Friar who is travelling to Bexar ; but you 'll easily overtake him , as he travels with a little wagon and a sick woman . They are making a pilgrimage to the saints there for her health . They have two lazy mules and a half-breed driver that wo n't work miracles on the roads , whatever the Virgin may after !