noon
And when breakfast was over there was no December left ; and by the time the Virginian and I were ten miles upon our way , it was June . But always every breath that I breathed was pure as water and strong as wine . We never passed a human being this day . Some wild cattle rushed up to us and away from us ; antelope stared at us from a hundred yards ; coyotes ran skulking through the sage-brush to watch us from a hill ; at our noon meal we killed a rattlesnake and shot some young sage chickens , which were good at supper , roasted at our camp-fire . By half-past eight we were asleep beneath the stars , and by half-past four I was drinking coffee and shivering . The horse , Buck , was hard to catch this second morning . Whether some hills that we were now in had excited him , or whether the better water up here had caused an effervescence in his spirits , I can not say .