noon
The captain of our ship had died at sea , and he give me nine thousand five hundred and seventy-two English gold guineas , to take to his brother and sister . '' Here he always stared around at the company , and accepted credulously the counterfeit coin of grotesquely exaggerated amazement which was given him . `` Wa'al , sir , I done it . I give the gold to them as it belonged to , and I was to leave town on the noon stagecoach . I was stayin ' in the captain 's brother 's house . It was spang up against the woods , on the edge of town ; and , I tell ye , woods _ was _ woods in them days . `` The mornin ' I was to leave I was up early , lookin ' out of my window , when what should I see with these mortial eyes but a gre ' t bull moose , as big as two yoke o ' oxen , comin ' along toward the house .