noon
`` My packet of letters was safe and dry , so I slept in peace , and we were both as chirpy as sparrows when we set out the next morning . It was a clear , still day , with the sun falling warmly upon us . `` Our way now led through the bush for mile after mile -- little hills and stony ground and swamp-land . By noon we were wet to the knees ; but this circumstance was then too insignificant for remark , although later it gave me the narrowest chance for life that ever came within my experience . `` We made Swift Rapids late in the afternoon , when the sun was low and a frosty wind was freezing the pools by the way . The post at Little Lake lay not more than three miles beyond the foot of the rapids , and when the swish and roar of water first fell upon our ears we hallooed most joyfully , for it seemed to us that we had come within reaching distance of our destination . '' ` No , ' said John , when we stood on the shore of the river . ''