ten o'clock in the
morning
But in Sorrento and all down the coast , most seafaring men get nicknames under which their real and legal appellations disappear completely and are totally forgotten . The Fool , whose son Ruggiero meant to engage , had earned his title in bygone days by dancing an English hornpipe for the amusement of his companions , the Gull owed his to the singular length and shape of his nose , and the Cripple had in early youth worn a pair of over-tight boots on Sundays , whereby he had limped sadly on the first day of every week , for nearly two years . So that the crew were all sound in mind and body in spite of their alarming names . Ruggiero sat on the box and waited , meditating upon the probable occupations of gentlemen who habitually slept till ten o'clock in the morning and sometimes till twelve . From time to time he brushed an almost imperceptible particle of dust from his very smart blue cloth knees , and settled the in-turned collar of the perfectly new blue guernsey about his neck . It was new , and it scratched him disagreeably , but it was highly necessary to present a prosperous as well as a seamanlike appearance on such an important occasion . Nothing could have been more becoming to him than the dark close-fitting dress , showing as it did the immense breadth and depth of his chest , the clean-cut sinewy length of his limbs and the easy grace and strength of his whole carriage .