midnight
`` No , shut up and go to sleep , '' growled back Mr. Conroyal . The next morning everybody at the Headquarters of the Never-Give-Up California Mining Company was up an hour before the sun flashed its golden light over the tops of the eastern mountains and down on the log cabins and tents of Hangtown . All the workers in the mining-camps went to bed early , tired out with their hard day 's work with pick and shovel , slept soundly , and arose early the next morning to begin another day of toil . Only the drones -- the gamblers , the saloon-keepers , and their foolish patrons -- burned the midnight oil , or , rather in this case , the midnight candle , for there was little oil to burn in these camps . Hence it was that when Thure and Bud hurried out of the house to wash their hands and faces in a near-by spring , they saw that they were far from being the only early risers , that the smoke was rising from the chimneys of nearly every log cabin in sight and that in front of nearly every tent glowed a camp-fire , around which the cooks already could be seen preparing breakfast . `` Well , this is great ! '' declared Bud , as he dashed the cool , refreshing water over his face .