about midday
`` You are not used to them yet . I 've been talking to Mr Quong , and he tells me that he is going to hunt about till he finds gold . Then I suppose he 'll leave us to ourselves . '' We were both too hot and tired to trouble about the Chinaman , and were very glad when , about midday , Gunson called a halt under the shade of a great tree , that grew beside a little brawling stream which came hurrying down from above . Here we dropped our burdens with a sigh of relief , and partook of some cold bacon and bread , which seemed about the most delicious thing I had ever tasted . Quong was given a lunch for himself , and he took it aside , ate it quickly , and then , in place of lying down as we did for a good two hours ' rest during the heat of the day , he produced a little tin plate and picked his way down to the stream 's edge , and then amongst the rocks , till he came upon a patch of gravelly sand over which a few inches of water danced merrily . Gunson watched him curiously ; I did the same , Esau having dropped off to sleep as soon as he had eaten his midday meal .