ten o'clock
McKay sat up out of his nest of balsam boughs and blankets and caught the bright glint of sunlight through the treetops . He rubbed his eyes and stared again to make sure . Then he looked at his watch . It was ten o'clock and peering in the direction of the open he saw the white edge of it glistening in the unclouded blaze of a sun . It was the first sun -- the first real sun -- he had seen for many days , and with Peter he went to the rim of the barren a hundred yards distant . He wanted to shout . As far as he could see the white plain was ablaze with eye-blinding light , and never had the sky at Cragg 's Ridge been clearer than the sky that was over him now .