noon
From the Cresswells and the Maxwells and others came loads of clothes for washing and mending . The Tolliver girls had simple dresses made , embroidery was ordered from town , and soon there would be the gardens and cotton fields . Mrs. Cresswell would saunter down of mornings . Sometimes she would talk to the big girls and play with the children ; sometimes she would sit hidden in the forest , listening and glimpsing and thinking , thinking , till her head whirled and the world danced red before her eyes , today she rose wearily , for it was near noon , and started home . She saw Alwyn swing along the road to the school dining-room where he had charge of the students at the noonday meal . Alwyn wanted Mrs. Cresswell 's judgment and advice . He was growing doubtful of his own estimate of women .