two o'clock in the morning
The crop of melons came in well , and many a good feast we had from them . Once and again I was able to carry a nice fresh melon to an old lady my mother was fond of , who now lay sick with a tertian ague . Then we had the best sweet corn for dinner every day that any man had in New York . For at Delmonico 's itself , the corn the grandees had had been picked the night before , and had started at two o'clock in the morning on its long journey to town . But my mother picked my corn just at the minute when she knew I was leaving my shop . She husked it and put it in the pot , and by the time I had come home , had slipped up the board in the fence that served me for a door , and had washed my face and hands in my own room , she would have dished her dinner , would have put her fresh corn upon the table , covered with a pretty napkin ; and so , as I say , I had a feast which no nabob in New York had . No indeed , nor any king that I know of , unless it were the King of the Sandwich Islands , and I doubt if he were as well served as I .