noon
There would be three more years of just managing to live -- three more years of sowing and planting and watering and watching , at the end of which they would not quite have starved , while Matt would have had a hole in which to hide himself on coming out of jail . Decidedly it was an argument . She had already shown her willingness to sell herself ; and this would apparently prove to be her price . Wearily , when noon had passed and afternoon set in , she got herself to her feet . Wearily she began to descend the hill . She would go back again to the cucumbers . She would take up again the burden she had thrown down .