noon
I hope I may never again have to do anything so slow and painful . Kaiser was prodigiously excited , and jumped around me and barked and said as plainly as words that he would like to help if he could . But , though I thought a hundred times that I should never reach there , I kept burrowing and floundering along and did accomplish it at last . It was far past noon . The sky had clouded over . I saw a new letter behind the board , but could not rise up to get it . I pushed open the door , crawled to the heap of hay by the stove , and lay on it , more miserable , it seemed , than ever before .