two o'clock
Book learning has not diminished the husbandman 's traditional incredulity : if Sycamore traction bonds were worth seventy to Amzi Montgomery , they were undoubtedly worth eighty , at least , to the confiding original purchasers . Those who had clung to their bonds were disposed to ridicule those who had sold ; and yet no one was wholly comfortable , either way . The collapse of the furniture company might prelude a local panic , and farmers and country merchants collected in groups along Main Street to discuss the situation . The Saturday half-holiday in the various Montgomery industries added to the crowd that drifted toward the courthouse at two o'clock , drawn by the announcement that Alec Waterman was to discuss many local issues , which the failure of the furniture company had rendered acute . The circuit court-room was packed with farmers , mechanics , and the usual idlers when Waterman without introduction began to speak . At that moment Amzi Montgomery , in his seersucker coat and with his old straw hat tilted to one side , stood at the door of his bank and observed half a dozen men on the steps of the First National . Amzi , a careful student of his fellow-townsmen , was aware that men and women were passing into the rival bank in larger numbers than usual , even for a Saturday , and that the mellifluous oratory of Alec Waterman had not drawn from the First National corner a score of idlers who evidently felt that the center of interest lay there rather than at the court-house .