noon
`` Oh , you 'll soon get the business straightened out and running smoothly again , '' Sinclair declared confidently . `` Well , I 'm glad I started on the job to-day , rather than next Monday , as I planned to do last night . '' He stepped to the window and looked out . At the mill-dock a big steam schooner and a wind-jammer lay ; in the lee of the piles of lumber , sailors and long-shoremen , tallymen and timekeeper lounged , enjoying the brief period of the noon hour still theirs before the driving mates of the lumber-vessels should turn them to on the job once more . To his right and left stretched the drying yard , gangway on gangway formed by the serried rows of lumber-piles , the hoop-horses placidly feeding from their nosebags while the strong-armed fellows who piled the lumber sat about in little groups conversing with the mill-hands . As Bryce looked , a puff of white steam appeared over the roof of the old sawmill , and the one o'clock whistle blew . Instantly that scene of indolence and ease turned to one of activity .