about four o'clock
There was , therefore , such an utter absence of diversity of opinion , that the most quarrelsome searched in vain for provocation . On the afternoon of the day on which the opening events of this story occurred , the boys , by agreement , stopped work two hours earlier than usual , for the stage usually reached Bottle Flat about two hours before sundown , and the one of that day was to bring the hated teacher . The boys had wellnigh given up the idea of further resistance , yet curiosity has a small place even in manly bosoms , and they could at least _ look _ hatred at the detested pedagogue . So about four o'clock they gathered at The Nugget so suddenly , that several fathers ; who were calmly drinking inside , had barely time to escape through the back windows . The boys drank several times before composing themselves into their accustomed seats and leaning-places ; but it was afterward asserted and Southpaw -- the one-armed bar-keeper -- cited as evidence , that none of them took sugar in their liquor . They subjected their sorrow to homeopathic treatment by drinking only the most raw and rasping fluids that the bar afforded . The preliminary drinking over , they moodily whittled , chewed , and expectorated ; a stranger would have imagined them a batch of miserable criminals awaiting transportation .