three o'clock in the afternoon
Mattia was almost as pleased as I , and he was very proud that he had contributed his part to such a sum . His part was great , for I am sure that without him , Capi and I could not have collected anything like the sum of one hundred and twenty-eight francs ! From Varses to Chavanon we could easily gain the twenty-two francs that we were short . It was three o'clock in the afternoon when we arrived at Varses and a radiant sun shone in the clear sky , but the nearer we got to the town the darker became the atmosphere . Between the sky and the earth hung a cloud of smoke . I knew that Alexix 's uncle was a miner at Varses , but I did not know whether he lived in the town itself or outside . I simply knew that he worked in a mine called the `` Truyère . ''