About midday
I bit hard on my lip to curb my restlessness , and I think I would have sold my soul there and then for anything that could move fast . I do n't know any sorer trial than to be mad for speed and have to crawl at a snail 's pace . I was getting ripe for any kind of desperate venture . About midday we descended on a wide plain full of the marks of rich cultivation . Villages became frequent , and the land was studded with olive groves and scarred with water furrows . From what I remembered of the map I judged that we were coming to that champagne country near Siwas , which is the granary of Turkey , and the home of the true Osmanli stock . Then at the turning of the road we came to the caravanserai .