twelve o'clock
It took a long time , but I succeeded in the end . In her vacant intellect , there was a fixed correlation between the sound and her taste , a correspondence between two senses , an appeal from one to the other , and consequently a sort of connection of ideas -- if one can call that kind of instinctive hyphen between two organic functions an idea -- and so I carried my experiments further , and taught her , with much difficulty , to recognize meal times on the face of the clock . `` It was impossible for me for a long time to attract her attention to the hands , but I succeeded in making her remark the clockwork and the striking apparatus . The means I employed were very simple ; I asked them not to have the bell rung for lunch , and everybody got up and went into the dining room , when the little brass hammer struck twelve o'clock , but I found great difficulty in making her learn to count the strokes . She ran to the door each time she heard the clock strike , but by degrees she learned that all the strokes had not the same value as far as regarded meals , and she frequently fixed her eyes , guided by her ears , on the dial of the clock . `` When I noticed that , I took care , every day at twelve and at six o'clock to place my fingers on the figures twelve and six , as soon as the moment she was waiting for , had arrived , and I soon noticed that she attentively followed the motion of the small brass hands , which I had often turned in her presence . `` She had understood !