the July noon sun
For one thing , her passion for bread-and-butter , covered with apple sauce and powdered sugar , was getting to be a serious matter . Secretly , William was not yet so changed by love as to be wholly indifferent to this refection himself , but his consumption of it was private , whereas Jane had formed the habit of eating it in exposed places -- such as the front yard or the sidewalk . At no hour of the day was it advisable for a relative to approach the neighborhood in fastidious company , unless prepared to acknowledge kinship with a spindly young person either eating bread-and-butter and apple sauce and powdered sugar , or all too visibly just having eaten bread-and-butter and apple sauce and powdered sugar . Moreover , there were times when Jane had worse things than apple sauce to answer for , as William made clear to his mother in an oration as hot as the July noon sun which looked down upon it . Mrs. Baxter was pleasantly engaged with a sprinkling-can and some small flower-beds in the shady back yard , and Jane , having returned from various sidewalk excursions , stood close by as a spectator , her hands replenished with the favorite food and her chin rising and falling in gentle motions , little prophecies of the slight distensions which passed down her slender throat with slow , rhythmic regularity . Upon this calm scene came William , plunging round a corner of the house , furious yet plaintive . `` You 've got to do something about that child ! ''