noon
Then Ellen Culpepper found her tongue , and Mrs. Barclay began to look for a horse . Elmer Hendricks ' pony in the pasture was the only horse Ward had left within twenty miles . When Ellen Culpepper and her little sister Molly came back from the pasture and announced that Elmer 's pony was gone also , the women surmised that he had taken it with him , for they could not know that after he was spanked from the provision wagon , he had slipped out to the pasture and ridden by a circuitous route to the main road . It was Captain Ward , dismounting from his driver 's seat on the provision wagon at noon , who discovered two boys : a little boy eleven years old in a dead faint , and a bigger boy panting with the heat . They threw cold spring water on John Barclay 's face , and finally his eyes opened , and he grinned as he whispered , `` Hullo , Captain , '' to the man bending over him . The man held water to the boy 's lips , and he sipped a little and swam out into the blackness again , and then the man reappeared and the boy tried to smile and whispered , `` Aw -- I 'm all right . '' They saw he was coming out of his faint , and one by one the crowd dropped away from him ; but Ward stayed , and when the child could speak , he replied to Ward 's question , '' 'Cause I wanted to . ''