nearly one o’clock
There 's a great deal to be done yet in this world and some of us , who are boys now , will have to do it . Look to your shoe latchet , Van . It 's unfastened . '' A Catastrophe It was nearly one o'clock when Captain van Holp and his command entered the grand old city of Haarlem . They had skated nearly seventeen miles since morning and were still as fresh as young eagles . From the youngest -LRB- Ludwig van Holp , who was just fourteen -RRB- to the eldest , no less a personage than the captain himself , a veteran of seventeen , there was but one opinion -- that this was the greatest frolic of their lives . To be sure , Jacob Poot had become rather short of breath during the last mile of two , and perhaps he felt ready for another nap , but there was enough jollity in him yet for a dozen .