noon
I see it before me yet . '' `` What was it , Mary ? '' asked her brother , with quivering lips . `` It was a lonesome place , '' continued the girl , `` a dark lonesome place ; but God 's moon was shining there , and there was no need of the sun , or of any other light , for all seemed plain to me as the noon day . `` I saw an old man with grey hairs , and another man old and grey was beside him . The countenances of both were dark and unlovely . And one old man was on his knees -- but it was not to God he knelt ; he had set up an idol to worship , and that idol was gold ; and God , as a punishment , had turned his heart to stone , so that nothing but the gold could awaken the least sympathy there .