noon
I thought it my part to obey , and , for fear of falling , laid myself at full length upon the handkerchief , with the remainder of which he lapped me up to the head for farther security , and in this manner carried me home to his house . There he called his wife , and showed me to her ; but she screamed and ran back , as women in England do at the sight of a toad or a spider . However , when she had awhile seen my behavior , and how well I observed the signs her husband made , she was soon reconciled , and by degrees grew extremely tender of me . It was about twelve at noon , and a servant brought in dinner . It was only one substantial dish of meat -LRB- fit for the plain condition of an husbandman -RRB- in a dish of about four-and-twenty feet diameter . The company were the farmer and his wife , three children , and an old grandmother . When they were sat down , the farmer placed me at some distance from him on the table , which was thirty feet high from the floor .