noon
Dell was skeptical . `` Not like the pictures of cowboys ? -- not shooting and galloping their horses ? '' `` Why , you silly boy , '' said Joel , with contempt ; `` there was n't a shot fired , their horses were never out of a walk , never wet a hair , and they changed to fresh ones at noon . The only difference I could see , they wore their hats at dinner . And they were surely cowboys , because they had over three thousand big beeves , and had come all the way from Texas . '' `` I wish I could have gone , '' was Dell 's only comment .