nearly noon
The bitterness of the dreaded task was deepened also by contrast with the gambols of his cousin Billy , who was hunting rats with Growler amid the last sheaves of the stack bottom . The piercing shrieks of Billy , as he clapped his hands in murderous glee , mingled now and again with the barking of the dog . The machine seemed to fill the world with its snarling boom , which became a deafening yell when the cylinder ran empty for a moment . It was nearly noon , and the men were working silently , with occasional glances toward the sun to see how near dinner-time it was . The horses , dripping with sweat , and with patches of foam under their harness , moved round and round steadily to the cheery whistle of the driver . The wild , imperious song of the bell-metal cog-wheel had sung into Milton 's ears till it had become a torture , and every time he lifted his eyes to the beautiful far-off sky , where the clouds floated like ships , a lump of rebellious anger rose in his throat . Why should he work in this choking dust and deafening noise while the hawks could sail and sweep from hill to hill with nothing to do but play ?