noon
`` Perhaps it is not what we have done but what we have failed to do , though whatever it is Areskoui has willed that we lie close another day . '' `` And starve , '' said Robert ruefully . `` And starve , '' repeated the Onondaga . The three crouched once more under the lee of the cliff , but toward noon they built their wooden wall another foot higher , driven to the work by the threatening aspect of the sky , which turned to a somber brown . The wind sprang up again , and it had an edge of damp . `` Soon it will rain , '' said Tayoga , `` and it will be a bitter cold rain . Much of the snow will melt and then freeze again , coating the earth with ice .