noon
said one of the company in reply . `` No , indeed ! Why , the ice is more than three feet thick , and as sound and solid as a rock . Should it rain from this time till to-morrow noon , it wo n't start . '' `` Well , now , I do n't know about that , '' remarked an observant old settler , who had been silently regarding the different portents to which we have alluded . `` I do n't know about the ice staying here twenty hours , or even one . This has been no common thaw , that we have had for the last six or eight hours , let me tell you . ''