noon
Their daily round had little change . Corney was up at daybreak to light the fire , call his sisters , and feed the horses while they prepared breakfast . At six the meal was over and Corney went to his work . At noon , which Margat knew by the shadow of a certain rampike falling on the spring , a clear notification to draw fresh water for the table , Loo would hang a white rag on a pole , and Corney , seeing the signal , would return from summer fallow or hayfield , grimy , swarthy , and ruddy , a picture of manly vigor and honest toil . Thor might be away all day , but at night , when they again assembled at the table , he would come from lake or distant ridge and eat a supper like the dinner and breakfast , for meals as well as days were exact repeats : pork , bread , potatoes , and tea , with occasionally eggs supplied by a dozen hens around the little log stable , with , rarely , a variation of wild meat , for Thor was not a hunter and Corney had little time for anything but the farm . A huge four-foot basswood had gone the way of all trees . Death had been generous -- had sent the three warnings : it was the biggest of its kind , its children were grown up , it was hollow .