twelve o'clock noon
I and my agent panoplied ourselves in walking-costume , one bright morning , and started down the lake on the steamboat ; we got ashore at the village of Waeggis ; three-quarters of an hour distant from Lucerne . This village is at the foot of the mountain . We were soon tramping leisurely up the leafy mule-path , and then the talk began to flow , as usual . It was twelve o'clock noon , and a breezy , cloudless day ; the ascent was gradual , and the glimpses , from under the curtaining boughs , of blue water , and tiny sailboats , and beetling cliffs , were as charming as glimpses of dreamland . All the circumstances were perfect -- and the anticipations , too , for we should soon be enjoying , for the first time , that wonderful spectacle , an Alpine sunrise -- the object of our journey . There was -LRB- apparently -RRB- no real need for hurry , for the guide-book made the walking-distance from Waeggis to the summit only three hours and a quarter . I say `` apparently , '' because the guide-book had already fooled us once -- about the distance from Allerheiligen to Oppenau -- and for aught I knew it might be getting ready to fool us again .