the sun at noon
Had a little skrimmage with him myself . Rather entertaining old ` coon , if he was n't so deuced analytical . Reminded me somehow of what I 've heard about Colonel John Moredock , of Illinois , only your friend ai n't quite so good a fellow at bottom , I should think . '' It was in the semicircular porch of a cabin , opening a recess from the deck , lit by a zoned lamp swung overhead , and sending its light vertically down , like the sun at noon . Beneath the lamp stood the speaker , affording to any one disposed to it no unfavorable chance for scrutiny ; but the glance now resting on him betrayed no such rudeness . A man neither tall nor stout , neither short nor gaunt ; but with a body fitted , as by measure , to the service of his mind . For the rest , one less favored perhaps in his features than his clothes ; and of these the beauty may have been less in the fit than the cut ; to say nothing of the fineness of the nap , seeming out of keeping with something the reverse of fine in the skin ; and the unsuitableness of a violet vest , sending up sunset hues to a countenance betokening a kind of bilious habit .