an hour after noon
He laid down his scrip , and drew his meat from it and ate what he would , and dipping his gilded beaker into the brook , drank water smacking of the damp musty savour of the woodland ; and then his head sank back on a little mound in the short turf , and he fell asleep at once . A long dream he had in short space ; and therein were blent his thoughts of the morning with the deeds of yesterday ; and other matters long forgotten in his waking hours came back to his slumber in unordered confusion : all which made up for him pictures clear , but of little meaning , save that , as oft befalls in dreams , whatever he was a-doing he felt himself belated . When he awoke , smiling at something strange in his gone-by dream , he looked up to the heavens , thinking to see signs of the even at hand , for he seemed to have been dreaming so long . The sky was thinly overcast by now , but by his wonted woodcraft he knew the whereabouts of the sun , and that it was scant an hour after noon . He sat there till he was wholly awake , and then drank once more of the woodland water ; and he said to himself , but out loud , for he was fain of the sound of a man 's voice , though it were but his own : ` What is mine errand hither ? Whither wend I ? What shall I have done to-morrow that I have hitherto left undone ?