noon
It was high hot noon on the Casket Ridge . Its very scant shade was restricted to a few dwarf Scotch firs , and was so perpendicularly cast that Leonidas Boone , seeking shelter from the heat , was obliged to draw himself up under one of them , as if it were an umbrella . Occasionally , with a boy 's perversity , he permitted one bared foot to protrude beyond the sharply marked shadow until the burning sun forced him to draw it in again with a thrill of satisfaction . There was no earthly reason why he had not sought the larger shadows of the pine-trees which reared themselves against the Ridge on the slope below him , except that he was a boy , and perhaps even more superstitious and opinionated than most boys .