noon
`` Another hour must pass ere day grows bright , And ere the little birds begin discourse In quick low voices , ere the streaming light Pours on their nests , just sprung from day 's fresh source . '' After the late hours we had kept on the last evening , most of us would willingly have prolonged our slumbers beyond the time previously fixed for setting out upon our return to Castle-hill . But before it was fairly light , Arthur was up , with an unseasonable and provoking alacrity , calling loudly upon us to bestir ourselves . In vain Browne apostrophised him in moving strains as `` the rude disturber of his pillow , '' remonstrated against such unmerciful punctuality , and petitioned for another nap ; in vain Max protested that we were not New York shop-boys , obliged to rise at daylight to make fires , and open and sweep out stores , but free and independent desert islanders , who had escaped from the bondage of civilised life , and the shackles of slavish routine , and who need not get up until noon , unless of our own good pleasure . Arthur was inexorable , and finding that further sleep was out of the question , we yielded at last to his despotic pertinacity , and groped our way into the boat , yawning desperately , and not more than half awake . The sea-fowl had not yet begun to stir in their nests , when we pushed out into the lagoon , and commenced pulling homeward -- as we had now almost come to regard it -- holding a course midway between the reef and the shore . A few moments ' exercise at the oars sufficed to dispel our drowsiness , and to reconcile us somewhat to the early start , which we had so reluctantly taken .