noon
Long before that Stella heard her brother astir . She wondered sleepily at his sprightliness , for as she remembered him at home he had been a confirmed lie-abed . She herself responded none too quickly to the breakfast gong , as a result of which slowness the crew had filed away to the day 's work , her brother striding in the lead , when she entered the mess-house . She killed time with partial success till noon . Several times she was startled to momentary attention by the prolonged series of sharp cracks which heralded the thunderous crash of a falling tree . There were other sounds which betokened the loggers ' activity in the near-by forest , -- the ringing whine of saw blades , the dull stroke of the axe , voices calling distantly . She tried to interest herself in the camp and the beach and ended up by sitting on a log in a shady spot , staring dreamily over the lake .