three o'clock
After he had showed me the bed which I was to consider my own , and other things , the men came about me , and asked me a number of questions , which I answered frankly ; and thus the time passed till one o'clock , when dinner was ready . The dinner was a very good one , and all the mess things , plates , basins , knives , forks , and spoons , struck me as being very nice and clean . Higgins asked me to sit down ; but , as I cast my eye over my rough not over-clean countrified dress , I felt ashamed of myself among so many fine-looking red jackets , forgetting that every man present had once been much in the same state that I then was . All , however , went pleasantly enough till three o'clock , when the recruits fell in for drill , as did the regiment . The drill of the regiment lasted only half an hour , while ours lasted an hour . Our drill-sergeant , Herbert , a jolly good fellow , called us to the position of attention . After we had been drilling for some time , he asked , as the other sergeant had done , if I had before been in the army ; and when I told him that I had not , he ordered me to stand at ease .