about midday
I asked . `` The sap was still wet in the twigs , so it could not have been much above an hour since they left . Besides , the smoke had blown south , for the grass smelt of it that side . Now the wind was more to the east when we left , and , if you remember , it changed to the north about midday . '' I said it was a marvel , and he grunted . `` The marvel is what they 've been doing in the Tidewater , for from the Tidewater I 'll swear they came . '' Next day he led me eastward , away back in the direction of the manors .