eight o'clock
Some unusual scheme must be devised to enable twelve men to take care of twenty-four . Fortunately it happened that half a dozen of the twenty-four took the six-o'clock train for their homes in neighboring towns , where they went to spend Saturday and Sunday with their parents . This reduced the number to eighteen . Friday evening a number of the Crows appeared at the `` Slaughterhouse , '' though there was to be a banquet at eight o'clock . With true boyhood appetite , they felt , that a bun in the hand is worth two in the future ; and besides , what self-respecting boy would refuse to take care of two meals where he had been in the habit of only one ? It would be flying in the face of Providence . Now , Sawed-Off , who , as you know , was paying his way through the Academy , earned his board by waiting on the table .