midnight
Did your heroes , Temple , Sorrel , and Grant , think of supper and of bed when their feet for the first time trod the soil of Old Norway ? '' Even so ! Romantic reader , I am bound to tell you that romance is all very well in its way , but it has no power whatever over an empty stomach or an exhausted brain . When our three friends landed in Bergen it was past midnight . Their admiration of the scenery had induced them to neglect supper and to defy sleep , so that when they landed they felt more than half inclined to fall upon their boatman and eat him up alive , and then to fall down on the stone pier and go off to sleep at once . In this frame of mind and body they entered the house of Madame Sontoom , and called for supper . Madame Sontoom was the owner of a private hotel .