one o'clock
A.M.
He was nearly fifteen , and a strange contrast to Johnny , whose perfect health , ardent joyousness , and lumbering proportions never were so observable as beside the clear-cut face of the other , the slow gait , an expression of countenance at once audacious , keen , and sweet , together with that peculiar shadow under the eyelids which some people consider to betoken an early death . Crayshaw was happily quite well that afternoon , and accordingly very noisy doings went on ; Miss Crampton was away for her short Easter holiday , and Aunt Christie did not interfere if she could help it when Johnny was at home . That night Master Augustus John Mortimer , his friend , and all the family were early asleep ; not so the next . It was some time past one o'clock A.M. when John Mortimer and Brandon , who had been dining together at a neighbour 's house , one having left his father rather better , and the other having come home from the Isle of Wight , walked up towards the house deep in conversation , till John , lifting up his eyes , saw lights in the schoolroom windows . This deluded father calmly remarked that the children had forgotten to put the lamp out when they went to bed . Brandon thought he heard a sound uncommonly like infant revelry , but he said nothing , and the two proceeded into the closed house , and went softly up-stairs . `` Roast pork , '' said Brandon , `` if ever I smelt that article in my life ! ''