Nooning

When the girls went in to dinner the men had finished theirs, and were lounging in the shady yard enjoying their nooning.

An hour or two passed, and we saw a house in the distance to which we drove,--a humble house, sod-built, like that we had made our nooning in.

It was the nooning hour, and the men at their limited leisure lay in the sun on the piles of lumber, like lizards.

Then on to Big Bitter Cottonwood, where we had our nooning among the trees on the wide sandy bed of the stream, which had sunk under ground for many miles, as is the custom of rivers here.

A German gentleman and his two young-lady daughters had been taking their nooning at the inn, and when they left, just ahead of us, it was plain that their driver was as drunk as ours, and as happy and good-natured, too, which was saying a good deal.

In proper California fashion we made our nooning by the roadside, pulling up under the shade of a hospitable sycamore and turning Sorreltop out to graze.