noon
`` It 's eight minutes of twelve , Hiram , '' she announced . `` I 'll roll out my biscuit dough . Can you yell ? If so , shout ahead to Blink Keddie and call a halt for noon . '' Hiram rose to his six feet one and cupped his great hands about his mouth . The mellow call that he sent out had rung through miles of Mendocino forest , and now caused every skinner in the line to turn and look back . A wave of Jo 's hand and they understood the noon had come .