twelve o'clock
He had only a short distance to go , through his beautiful pine grove , and there was always some one on the boat with whom he could exchange a few words to vary the monotony of country life . At the end of the grove , where the road began an abrupt descent to the pier , were some large bare rocks upon which folk who had come from a distance used to sit while waiting for the boat . And there were always many who waited at the Borg pier , as there was never any certainty as to when the boat would arrive . It seldom put in before twelve o'clock , and yet once in a while it reached the pier as early as eleven . Sometimes it did not come until one or two ; so that prompt people , who were down at the landing by ten o'clock , often had to sit there for hours . Engineer Boraeus had a good outlook over Lake Löven from his chamber window at Borg . He could see when the steamer rounded the point and never appeared at the landing until just in the nick of time .