noon
All the hustle and worry is over , and we are unanimously happy . The week following Christmas will be one dizzy round of parties and teas for the visitors , and Homeburg will be a delightful place full of the friends of boyhood , with an average of one reunion every fifteen minutes in and out of business hours . But on Christmas Day nothing will happen except the dinner . We 'll get our presents in the morning , and then at noon the great crisis will come . We 'll either conquer the dinner , or it will conquer us . You know how it is , Jim , because that 's the kind of dinner you had to-day . It was an Athletic Feat -- not the ordinary kind of city dinner where you save up carefully during seven courses , and finish strong on the water crackers and cheese , but a real Christmas gorge .