noon
`` The thermometer is at forty-six , King , '' he remarked . `` Yes , '' said the son , `` and falling . '' All morning it fell . At noon it registered forty degrees . The wind still swept a gale that whistled and shrieked at the corners of the house , and the three women passed the morning in Charlotte 's room , shivering about the open fire-place . Pete spent his day chopping and bringing in arm-loads of fat pine wood . All the sense of dissatisfaction with Aden returned .