midday
`` My dear boy , '' Eben Ricketts repeated a hundred times , `` though the Navy did the work , the Navy did not provide the pork and beans ; it did not arrange in advance for the landing , least of all did it buy the greasers . I will look where you like , for love of your father and you ; but that file of vouchers is not here , never was here , and never will be found here . '' An assistant like this is not an encouraging companion or adviser . And , in short , the vouchers were not found in the Navy Department , in that particular midday search . At twenty-five minutes past two Tom gave it up unwillingly , bade Eben Ricketts good-by , washed from his hands the accretions of coal-dust , which will gather even on letter-boxes in Navy Departments , and ran across in front of the President 's House , to Willard 's . He looked up at the White House , and wondered how the people there were spending their Christmas Day . Commodore Benbow was waiting for him .