noon
It was not necessarily one 's own story , he had said , but lives the most barren in incident come into contact with those more vehement , and have the chance of looking into tragedies , into moral victories and fierce conflicts , through other men 's eyes . He had hinted something of this to Joe Lakin early in the morning , when the mist was rising off the hills , when the air was fresh and keen , and the sun was making the long lines of oil upon the river glitter like so many brilliant snakes . Joe was the laziest and roughest of the men on the boat , but he sometimes had such a genial and even superior manner , that George had felt sure that he would comprehend his meaning . Thus when noon came , hot , close , and heavy with prophecy of dinner , George had sickened of human nature and of psychological studies ; but now the sun had set , and a golden glory lit the sky ; the fields on one side of the river rolled away green in clover and wavy in corn , the hills heavily wooded rose high and picturesquely on the other side , and the little island in the bend of the river seemed the home of quiet and of peace . The horses plodded patiently through the water , going out on the shallows and avoiding the deeper currents near the shore , and the boys , forgetting to shout and swear , rode along softly whistling . Over by the hills stood a cottage , and in the terraced garden a group of girls with bright ribbons in their hair were playing quoits with horseshoes . A rowboat was carrying passengers over the river to meet the evening train , and under the sweetness of the twilight George 's spirits arose lightly to their level , his old faith returned to him , and he looked up with a new sense of fellowship to Joe , who was filling a pipe with his favorite `` towhead . ''