noon
The old gentleman could not help hearing their conversation , and when he went out into the street he shook his head thoughtfully . -LSB- Illustration -RSB- `` I wonder what my father would have said to that ? '' he reflected . `` Young gentlemen sitting in a pot-house at high noon and turning verses like so many ballad-mongers ! Well , well , well , if those are the ways of lager-beer drinkers , I 'll stick to my good old ale ! '' And greatly surprised would that honest old gentleman have been to know that the presence of that little group of poets and humorists attracted as much custom to good Mr. Pfaff 's beer-saloon as did his fresh , cool lager ; and that young men , and , for the matter of that , men not so young , stole in there to listen to their contests of wit , and to wish and yearn and aspire to be of their goodly company . For the old gentleman little dreamed , as he went on his course up Broadway , that he had seen the first Bohemians of New York , and that these young men would be written about and talked about and versified about for generations to come .