noon
Sometimes they made their way through grassy uplands with trees as splendid as those of an English park , and sometimes they toiled painfully along a game-track that ran by the bank of a swift-rushing river . At midday a halt was called . The caravan had opened out by then ; men who were sick or had stopped to adjust a load , others who were weak or lazy , had lagged behind ; but at last they were all there ; and the rear guard , perhaps with George in charge of it , whose orders were on no account to allow a single man to remain behind them , reported that no one was missing . During the heat of noon they made fires and cooked food . Presently they set off once more and marched till sundown . When they reached the place which had been fixed on for camping , a couple of shots were fired as signals ; and soon the natives , men and women , began to stream in with little baskets of grain or flour , with potatoes and chickens , and perhaps a pot or two of honey . Very quickly the tents were pitched , the bed gear arranged , the loads counted and stacked .