five o'clock
They could not lay full account with the feeling . But these old men conning the gear and shaking heads so wisely -- these middle-aged Sabbath couples pacing around and hanging on heel to wonder how the soldiers packed themselves at night into quarters so narrow , or advancing and peering among utensils of cookery -- most of all the young women giggling while they wondered at this , that , or the ' other , -- all were impertinent to the scene . Whatever War signified , it was a mystery for men , and for young men . The crowd thinned towards five o'clock , which is Polpier 's Sunday hour for tea . On a tussock of thyme above Nicky-Nan 's freshly cleared patch -- the very tussock on which Corporal Sandercock had rested that morning -- young Obed Pearce , the farmer 's son , sat and sucked at a pipe of extinct tobacco . Hunger of heart had dragged him down to have a look at the camp : then , coming in full sight of it , he had halted as before the presence of something holy , to which he dared approach no nearer . He had arrived somewhat late in the afternoon , as the thick of the crowd was dispersing .