morning,
noon
No one , however -- not even the solitary constable of Amherstburg , ever ventured to interfere with Sampson Gattrie , who was in some degree a privileged character . Nay , strange as it may appear , notwithstanding his confirmed habit of inebriety , the old man stood high in the neighborhood , not only with simple but with gentle , for there were seasons when he evinced himself `` a rational being , '' and there was a dignity of manner about him , which , added to his then quietude of demeanour , insensibly interested in his favor , those even who were most forward to condemn the vice to which he was invariably addicted . Not , be it understood , that in naming seasons of rationality , we mean seasons of positive abstemiousness ; nor can this well be , seeing that Sampson never passed a day of strict sobriety during the last twenty years of his life . But , it might be said , that his three divisions of day -- morning , noon and night -- were characterized by three corresponding divisions of drunkenness -- namely , drunk , drunker , and most drunk . It was , therefore , in the first stage of this graduated scale , that Sampson appeared in his most amiable and winning , because his least uproarious , mood . His libations commenced at early morn , and his inebriety became progressive to the close of the day . To one who could ride home at night , as he invariably did , after some twelve hours of hard and continued drinking , without rolling from his horse , it would not be difficult to enact the sober man in its earlier stages .