midday
Two old women were picking the last acorns under three scrubby oak-trees , whilst a girl with bare feet drove her two goats and a sheep up from the water-side towards the women . The girl wore a dress that had been blue , perhaps indigo , but which had faded to the beautiful lavender-purple colour which is so common , and which always reminded Lilly of purple anemones in the south . The two friends sat in the sun and drank red wine . It was midday . From the thin , square belfry on the opposite hill the bells had rung . The old women and the girl squatted under the trees , eating their bread and figs . The boys were dressing , fluttering into their shirts on the stream 's shingle .