midday
They probably had an understanding with him about the rolls of fragrant butter which he instantly lifted into his basket . But if you came long after the bell rang , you had to take what you could get . There was a smell of cantaloupes in the air , along the line of wagons , that morning , and so it must have been towards the end of the summer . After the nights began to lengthen and to be too cold for the farmers to sleep in their wagons , as they did in summer on the market eves , the market time was changed to midday . Then it was fun to count the wagons on both sides of the street clear to where they frayed off into wood-wagons , and to see the great heaps of apples and cabbages , and potatoes and turnips , and all the other fruits and vegetables which abounded in that fertile country . There was a great variety of poultry for sale , and from time to time the air would be startled with the clamor of fowls transferred from the coops where they had been softly crr-crring in soliloquy to the hand of a purchaser who walked off with them and patiently waited for their well-grounded alarm to die away . All the time the market-master was making his rounds ; and if he saw a pound roll of butter that he thought was under weight , he would weigh it with his steelyards , and if it was too light he would seize it .