noon
Lancaster and the younger girl stayed in bed all of the twenty-four hours . Dallas got up only long enough to tend the animals and prepare food . But a day came when she could not make her way to the lean-to , and when the warped door could not be opened in the teeth of the raging storm . Toward noon , she cooked some food , however . The seed sacks were empty ; there was no rice and no flour . While the blizzard howled without , and Simon and the mules called pitifully for their fodder and drink , she broke up what was left of the table . Over its blaze the last smitch of bacon went to savour the last pint of beans .