noon
said the official ; `` this is a better place nor ye think . Ye ai n't going to get no potatoes , nohow , but something better than ye ever were used to . Take these young ` uns to the stove in the kitchen , '' said he to an under official . And the sobs and groans of the destitute orphans were drowned in the uproarious rumbling of the gong that called the officers of the establishment to dinner , it being now noon . The repugnance of the Irishman to the poorhouse is proverbial . Neither prison , dungeon , nor death is invested with greater horror , in the minds of the peasantry of Ireland , than this institution . Solely founded , as they are told , for their special use and benefit , there are instances , countless , on record , where the affectionate mother has thanked Heaven , when by fever , plague , or hunger it deprived her of her darling infant , rather than that it should become an inmate of the poorhouse !