about noon
`` Keep your money , Harry ; you will want it all when you get to Boston . '' After going a few miles farther , they stopped at a tavern , where the horses were fed , and Harry ate such a breakfast as a pauper never ate before . John would not let him pay for it , declaring that Julia 's friends were his friends . The remaining portion of the journey was effected without any incident worthy of narrating , and they reached the city about noon . Of course the first sight of Boston astonished Harry . His conceptions of a city were entirely at fault ; and though it was not a very large city twenty-five years ago , it far exceeded his expectations . Harry had a mission before him , and he did not permit his curiosity to interfere with that .