noon
For hours he could not shake off the gloom that oppressed him . He strode at the head of old Kazan , the leader , striking a course due south by compass . When he fell back for the third time to look at little Isobel he found the child buried deep in her blankets sound asleep . She did not awake until he stopped to make tea at noon . It was four o'clock when he halted again to make camp in the shelter of a clump of tall spruce . Isobel had slept most of the day . She was wide awake now , laughing at him as he dug her out of her nest .