noon
`` Yes , I will become a thief , '' he pondered . Calmer now , he took his way to his tavern , where he ate a peaceful supper , and went home and early to bed . He slept well , with that peace which irrevocable decisions produce in minds long racked by stress and storm . It was noon when he awoke . He got up at once , put on clean clothes and wrote his father a quiet letter that contained nothing except his studies . Then he tied up all his books and went down to the street with them enveloped in a big kerchief . `` They 've all got to be sold , '' thought he .