midday
The young men were `` copying , '' as we say , over the ice , that is , jumping from pan to pan as they ventured far out from the land seeking the seals which the running ice , driving out before the wind , had brought down from the Gulf , and then killing them , and hauling them back into safety . It was from them that I subsequently learned the story of the day . Before night fell the wind had risen , and blew directly from the land . Snow began to fall soon after midday , and by sundown a living blizzard howled over the frozen ocean . None of the distant neighbors had seen Uncle Rube set out ; none of them even knew that he had left his house ; no one before ever heard of his doing such a thing as start out on the ice alone . Nor was it till the next day that a half-frozen little girl , who was heard crying in the snow in front of a neighbor 's house , disclosed the secret that Uncle Rube was missing . How had they known at all that there were seals on the ice that day ?