noon
I 'm real glad ... they 're great for pies . '' But neither Marilla nor Anne nor anybody else was fated to make pies out of Yellow Duchess apples that year . The twenty-third of May came ... an unseasonably warm day , as none realized more keenly than Anne and her little beehive of pupils , sweltering over fractions and syntax in the Avonlea schoolroom . A hot breeze blew all the forenoon ; but after noon hour it died away into a heavy stillness . At half past three Anne heard a low rumble of thunder . She promptly dismissed school at once , so that the children might get home before the storm came . As they went out to the playground Anne perceived a certain shadow and gloom over the world in spite of the fact that the sun was still shining brightly .