six
o'clock in the morning
We carefully avoided our travelling companions that night , but learned the next morning that the Frenchman had slept on four chairs , and rejected the hotel coffee with the remark that it was not ` veritable ' -- a criticism in which he was quite justified . Our comparative Englishman had occupied a cot in a room where the tin bathtubs were kept . He was writing to The Times at the moment of telling me his woes , and , without seeing the letter , I could divine his impassioned advice never to travel in the west of Ireland in rainy weather . He remarked -LRB- as if quoting from his own communication -RRB- that the scenery was magnificent , but that there was an entirely insufficient supply of hot water ; that the waiters had the appearance of being low comedians , and their service was of the character one might expect from that description ; that he had been talking before breakfast with a German gentleman , who had sat on a wall opposite the village of Dugort , in the island of Achill , from six o'clock in the morning until nine , and in that time he had seen coming out of an Irish hut three geese , eight goslings , six hens , fifteen chickens , two pigs , two cows , two barefooted girls , the master of the house leading a horse , three small children carrying cloth bags filled with school-books , and finally a strapping mother leading a donkey loaded with peat-baskets ; that all this poverty and ignorance and indolence and filth was spoiling his holiday ; and finally , that if he should be as greatly disappointed in the fishing as he had been in the hotel accommodations -- here we almost fainted from suspense -- he should be obliged to go home ! And not only that , but he should feel it his duty to warn others of what they might expect . `` Perhaps you are justified , '' said Francesca sympathetically . `` People who are used to the dry , sunny climate and the clear atmosphere of London ought not to expose themselves to Irish rain without due consideration . ''