noon
He spoke of them as if they were joyous excursions , just like a wandering charity-student of the old _ Tuna _ converting his tales into courses in picturesque geography . With hungry delight he recollected the abundant milk of Galicia , the red sausages of Extramadura , the Castilian bread , the Basque apples , the wines and ciders of all the districts he had traversed , with his luggage on his shoulder . Guards were changed every day , -- some of them kind or indifferent , others ill-humored and cruel , who made all the prisoners fear a couple of shots fired beyond the ruts of the road , followed by the papers justifying the killing as having been caused by an attempt at flight . With a certain nostalgia he evoked the memory of mountains covered with snow or reddened and striped by the sun ; the slow procession along the white road that was lost in the horizon , like an endless ribbon ; the highlands , under the trees , in the hot noon hours ; the storms that assailed them upon the highways ; inundated ravines that forced them to camp out in the open ; the arrival , late at night , at certain town prisons , old convenes or abandoned churches , in which every man hunted up a dry corner , protected from draughts , where he could stretch his mat ; the endless journey with all the calm of a purposeless procession ; the long halts in spots where life was so monotonous that the presence of a group of prisoners was an event ; the urchins would come running up to the bars to speak with them , while the girls , impelled by morbid curiosity , would approach within a short distance , to hear their songs and their obscene language . `` Some mighty interesting travels , sir , '' continued the robber . `` For those of us who had good health and did n't drop by the roadside it was the same as a strolling band of students . Now and then a drubbing , but who pays any attention to such things !