noon before
Phil reddened , looked dreadfully ashamed of himself for about two minutes , then said in a cheerful tone : `` It is rather nice of me to be willing to play round with those sticky M'Kree babies , as if I were a kid myself . '' `` I suppose it is ; yet down underneath I dare say you rather like the playing round , as you call it , '' laughed Katherine , and then she worked on in silence up the solitary reaches of the river , with the glaring sunshine on her unsheltered back , and swarms of flies tormenting her unprotected face and neck . These last became such an intolerable nuisance after a time , that she was forced to swathe herself in a hot and cumbering veil . The `` back-ache '' portage was worthy of its name that day , and it was considerably past noon before they arrived at the Indian village to which they were bound . At first they could not find anyone at home , the whole community being away in the forest peeling bark from the birch trees for the making of canoes . But the same kind of thing had happened before , so Katherine was not at a loss . Picking up a tin pan , she commenced beating a military tattoo upon it with a thick stick ; while Phil , with a trumpet improvised from a roll of birchbark , produced an ear-splitting din which must have carried far through the quiet woods .