about midday
`` But it is glorious to see all this , '' I said eagerly . `` Yes ; glorious . In all my travels I have seen nothing more beautiful , '' said Gunson ; and he added laughing , `` I never went up a river that was so rugged and so swift . '' It was just in such a nook as that which we had admired so much that the Indians ran the boat ashore about midday , and after making her fast in a glassy little pool , they signed to us to get out , after which they all sat down among the ferns , and under the shelter of the spreading boughs of a pine , and brought out some food . We imitated their example , and made a hearty meal , washing it down with a tin of water from a little fountain which gushed from a moss-covered rock . By this time the Indians were lying down apparently asleep , and it set me thinking about what our position would be if we followed their example and they decamped with our boxes and stores . Suppose there was no way out of this neck , for the sides looked as if it would be impossible to climb them , and it was evidently a rare thing for any boat to go up or down .