noon
The `` grouch '' was due partially to the unwonted dissipation and its consequences and partly to the fact that his winter `` flannels '' had not been returned by Mrs. Melinda Pease , to whom they had been consigned for mending and overhauling . It was the tenth of November and for a period of twenty-four years , ever since his recovery from a severe attack of rheumatic fever , Caleb had made it a point to lay aside his summer underwear on the morning of November tenth and don a heavy suit . Weather , cold or warm , was not supposed to have any bearing on this change . The ninth might be as frigid as a Greenland twilight and the tenth as balmy as a Florida noon -- no matter ; on the ninth Mr. Hammond wore light underwear and shivered ; on the tenth he wore his `` flannels '' and perspired . It was another of his principles , and Caleb had a deserved reputation for adhering to principle and being `` sot '' in his ways . So , when , on this particular tenth of November , this Sabbath morning , he rose , conscious of the sandwiches and `` tonic , '' and found no suit of flannels ready for him to don , his grouch began to develop . He opened his chamber door a crack and shouted through the crack .