noon
But the old folks allowed that I must stay with 'em till I was twenty-one , any how . `` One day when I was about sixteen year old , the old man said ter me , ` Jerry , I 've got a lot of wood cut , up on the mountain-lot , that wants piling up . Yer 'd better take yer dinner and an axe along , and go up and pile it . Do it nice now , 'cause I shall be up ` bout noon , ter see how you git ` long . ' `` I knowed what that meant , well enuff ; it meant that , if I did n't do it right , I 'd git a gaddin ' , 'cause the old man was famous for gaddins ' . `` Arter breakfast mother put me up a good dinner of bread and meat , and I shouldered my axe and started for the wood-lot , ` bout three miles up the mountain . `` I whistled along and did n't think nothin ' ` bout ther walk ; 'cause , yer see , I allus liked ther woods , and enjoyed bein ' thar .