noon
It was as though his flute had been stuffed with frozen Alpine blossoms and these had been melted away by the passionate breath of his soul into the coldest invisible flowers of sound . At last , as though all these blossoms in his flute had been used up -- blown out upon the warm , moon-lit air as the snow-white fragrances of the ear -- the parson buried his face softly upon his elbow which rested on the back of his chair . And neither man spoke again . WHEN Mrs. Falconer had drawn near John 's hut on the morning of his misfortune , it was past noon despite all her anxious , sorrowful haste to reach him . His wounds had been dressed . The crowd of people that had gathered about his cabin were gone back to their occupations or their homes -- except a group that sat on the roots of a green tree several yards from his door . Some of these were old wilderness folk living near by who had offered to nurse him and otherwise to care for his comforts and needs .