noon
`` We came out here for work , '' said Earl . `` I did n't expect to sit around and sun myself . '' And all laughed at this remark . It was Sunday , and late on Saturday night a miner had been around announcing a religious meeting to be held over at the Bottom at noon . Mr. Portney , the boys , and the doctor walked over , nearly half a mile , leaving the captain in charge of the camp . They found about fifty miners collected around an improvised platform , where an earnest-looking young man was reading a chapter from his Bible . A song by three of the women present followed , and then came a short sermon on the brotherhood of man and the value of a faith which would carry a man above the temptation to do wrong , even in that desolate region .