noon
`` Night 's kind of wild ; pity it wo n't rain . Crops on light soil are getting badly cut . '' George glanced up at the patch of sky above the dark mass of trees . Black and threatening clouds drove across it ; but during the past few weeks he had watched them roll up from the west a little after noon almost every day . For a while , they shadowed the prairie , promising the deluge he eagerly longed for ; and then , toward evening , they cleared away , and pitiless sunshine once more scorched the plain . Grain grown upon the stiff black loam withstood the drought , but the light soil of the Marston farm was lifted by the wind , and the sharp sand in it abraded the tender stalks . It might cut them through if the dry weather and strong breeze continued ; and then the crop which was to cover his first expenses would yield him nothing .