midday
Mr. McCunn , in his new exhilaration , felt that he could not deny to others what he proposed for himself . His last act before leaving was to send Mackintosh ten pounds . Dickson McCunn was never to forget the first stage in that pilgrimage . A little after midday he descended from a grimy third-class carriage at a little station whose name I have forgotten . In the village near-by he purchased some new-baked buns and ginger biscuits , to which he was partial , and followed by the shouts of urchins , who admired his pack -- `` Look at the auld man gaun to the schule '' -- he emerged into open country . The late April noon gleamed like a frosty morning , but the air , though tonic , was kind . The road ran over sweeps of moorland where curlews wailed , and into lowland pastures dotted with very white , very vocal lambs .