noon
Later events followed -- his elder , vanished brother bullying him ; the brief romance of his sister 's courtship ; the high , strident voice of his mother , that had always reminded him of her angry red nose -- events familiar , sordid , unlovely , but now they seemed all of a piece of desirable , melancholy happiness ; they endowed with a hitherto unsuspected value every board of the rough footing of the Makimmon dwelling , every rood of the poor , rocky soil , the weedy grass . He said aloud , in a subdued , jarring voice , `` By God , but Simmons wo n't get it ! '' But the dreary whippoorwills , the feverish crickets , offered him no confirmation , no assurance . At noon , on the day following , he stood on the top of Cheap Mountain , gazing back into the deep , verdant cleft of Greenstream . From Cheap the reason for its name was clear -- it flowed now direct , now turning , in a vivid green stream along the bases of its mountainous ranges ; it flowed tranquil and dark and smooth between banks of tangled saplings , matted , multifarious underbrush , towering , venerable trees . It slipped like a river , bearing upon its balmy surface the promise of asylum , of sleep , of plenty , through the primitive , ruthless forest , which in turn pressed upon it everywhere the menace of its oblivion , its fierce , strangling life . He saw below him stretches of the steep , rocky trail by which he had mounted with the mounting sun ; both had now reached the zenith of their day 's journey ; from there he would sink into the shadow , the secretiveness , of night ... .