noon
HE knew them -- that orator did . HE knew that if the spirit of liberty , that at Jamestown and Plymouth Rock started blazing its way over a continent , lived unchanged anywhere , it dwelt , however unenlightened and unenlightening , in a heart that for an enemy was black with hate , red with revenge , though for the stranger , white and kind ; that in an eagle 's isolation had kept strung hard and fast to God , country , home ; that ticking clock-like for a century without hurry or pause was beginning to quicken at last to the march-rhythm of the world -- the heart of the Southern hills . Now the prophecy from the flaming tongue of that red-headed orator was coming to pass , and the heart of the Kentucky hills was making answer . It was just before noon when the boy reached the hill overlooking the capital . He saw the gleam of the river that came down from the mountains , and the home-thrill of it warmed him from head to foot . Past the cemetery he went , with a glimpse of the statue of Daniel Boone rising above the lesser dead . A little farther down was the castle-like arsenal guarded by soldiers , and he looked at them curiously , for they were the first his had ever seen .