the summer noon
Like a well-staged bit of mechanism , the reply to her rhetorical question came down to her from heaven . It came in the shape of a thunder-roll that began far off and reverberated from mountain to mountain ; then muttered itself into silence in the more distant hills . The Mistress , like everyone else , looked skyward . The hazy blue of the summer noon was paling to dirty gray and black . Up from the Hudson , a fast-mounting array of dun and flame-shot clouds were butting their bullying way . No weather-prophet was needed to tell these hillcountry folk that they were in for a thunderstorm ; -- and for what one kennel-man described as `` a reg ` lar ol' he-one , '' at that . Now , under right conditions , an open-air dogshow is a thing of beauty and of joy .