eight o'clock
By morning Peters was thoroughly accustomed to our presence ; and he seemed to take our watchfulness as a matter of course , and even to look for our attentions as a kind of right . He had slept several hours through the night , and at five o'clock was awake and seemingly much improved . Not the slightest delirium , even of the passive form -- in fact , nothing of a nature that could alarm or disconcert us , had occurred . Bainbridge had mentioned eight o'clock as about the time he would broach the subject of subjects to Peters , intending , as a matter of course , to lead up to it by very tactful gradations , passing from journeys in the abstract to the journeys in the concrete , thence to sea voyages , and thence , perhaps , to some mention of recent arctic -LRB- not antarctic -RRB- explorations ; and then , asking no questions yet , to proceed to a mention of Nantucket , from which vantage ground the propriety of risking a mention of the name Barnard would be considered . If up to this point all went well , a more pointed question or allusion might well be risked -- the brig Grampus , for instance , might be named ; and then , without more delay than should be necessary for Peters ' rest , we might hope to elicit the whole story of that wonderful voyage of discovery , the evidence of the completion of which certainly appeared to be before our eyes in the form of Dirk Peters , the returned voyager to the South Pole , in person . At six o'clock we prepared our own breakfast , and enjoyed it , sweetened as it was by a night in the pure country air , and seasoned with the anticipation of marvellous discoveries , involving the mysteries of a strange land , no doubt teeming with amazing surprises , and , as we felt that we had reason to believe , peopled by a race of beings with customs and attributes extremely wonderful . We had just arisen from our breakfast when a buggy drove rapidly up to the house , and stopped ; and we heard the voice of Doctor Castleton , shouting something to the old miner , who had gone forth a moment before to care for Bainbridge 's horse .