noon
Thou shalt have our shekels , Hazael said ; they are few , but the Lord be with thee and his luck . His was the long , steady gait of the shepherd , and he had not proceeded far into the hills before he was looking round acknowledging them , one after the other ; they were his friends , and his sheep 's friends , having given them pasturage for many a year ; and the oak wood 's shade had been friendly beforetimes to himself and his sheep . And he was going to rest in its shade once more . At noon he would be there , glad of some water ; for though the day was still young the sun was warm , the sky told him that before noon his tongue would be cleaving to the sides of his mouth ; a fair prediction this was , for long before the oak wood came into sight he had begun to think of the well at the end of the wood , and the quality of the water he would find in it , remembering that it used to hold good water , but the shepherds often forgot to replace the stopper and the water got fouled . As he walked his comrades of old time kept rising up in his memory one by one ; their faces , even their hands and feet , and the stories they told of their dogs , their fights with the wild beasts , and the losses they suffered from wolves and lions in the jungles along the Jordan . In old times these topics were the substance of his life , and he wished to hear the shepherds ' rough voices again , to look into their eyes , to talk sheep with them , to plunge his hands once more into the greasy fleeces , yes , and to vent his knowledge , so that if he should happen to come upon new men they would see that he , Jesus , had been at the job before . Now the day seems like keeping up , he said ; but there was a certain fear in his heart that the valleys would be close and hot in the afternoon and the hill-tops uninviting .