nearly noon
`` Ask Tom , '' he said , nodding his head toward his son who was stooking the grain a little distance away . `` It is Tom 's story . '' Mr. Grantley did ask Tom , and Tom told him ; and there in the sunshine , with the smell of the ripe grain in their nostrils as the minister helped him to carry the sheaves , a new heaven and a new earth were opened to Tom , and a new life was born within him , a life of godliness and of brotherly kindness , whose blessed influence has gone far beyond the narrow limits of that neighbourhood . It was nearly noon when the minister left him and drove home through the sun-flooded grain fields , with a glorified look on his face as one who had seen the heavens opened . Just before he turned into the valley of the Souris , he stopped his horse , and looked back over the miles and miles of rippling gold . The clickety-click-click of many binders came to his ears . Oh what a day it was !