eight
o'clock
`` Thank you , '' said Anderson , and was conscious of an exceedingly warm feeling for the child flying out of the store with his package of sweets under his arm . Carroll had arrived home very unexpectedly that Sunday morning . The family were at the breakfast-table . As a usual thing , Sunday-morning breakfast at the Carrolls ' was a desultory and uncertain ceremony , but when Major Arms was there it was promptly on the table at eight o'clock . He had not yet , in the relaxation of civilian life , gotten over the regular habits acquired in the army . `` It is n't hard you 'll find the old man on you , sweetheart , '' he told Ina , `` but there 's one thing he 's got to have , and that is his breakfast , and a good old Southern one , with plenty to eat , at eight o'clock , or you 'll find him as cross as a bear all day to pay for it . '' Ina laughed and blushed , and sprinkled the sugar on her cereal .