noon
I 'll do the same for you . '' Afterward she went to the barn with him and fed and watered while he supplemented her and winced when he hurt himself , making strange sounds under his breath that might have been oaths from a less religious man . And Tira was the more patient because the doctor had told her the foot would always trouble him . It was two days after he had begun to use his crutches , that Tira , after doing the noon chores in the barn and house , sat by the front window in her afternoon dress , a tidy housewife . The baby was having his nap and Tenney , at the other window , his crutch against the chair beside him , was opening the weekly paper that morning come . Tira looked up from her mending to glance about her sitting-room , and , for an instant , she felt to the full the pride of a clean hearth , a shining floor , the sun lying in pale wintry kindliness across the yellow paint and braided rugs . If she had led a gypsy life , it was not because her starved heart yearned the less tumultuously for order and the seemliness of walls .