noon
Miss Irma , after being formally introduced to the school , left the sort of throne which had been set for her beside my father , to go and sit beside Agnes Anne at the top of the highest form of girls . Her presence made a hush among the elder boys , and such of the young men as happened to be there that day . For though we had scholars up to the age of twenty , most of these were at work during the summer and came only in the winter season -- though in the interval betwixt sowing and hay-harvest and between that again and the ripening of the corn we would receive stray visits from them , especially in the long wet spells of weather . It was at noon and the girls were walking in their playground talking with linked arms , apart from the noisy sportings of the boys , when I caught my first glimpse of Uncle Rob . He was standing right opposite the school in the big door of the Eden Valley Mill . I wondered what he was doing there , for it was not the season for grinding much corn . Besides , it would have been handier to send it down and call for it again during such a busy season on the farm .