noon
But this may have been because the mothers themselves were gossiping whilst their men slumbered . All Polpier women -- even the laziest -- knit while they talk : and from nine o'clock onwards the alley-ways that pass for streets were filled with women knitting hard and talking at the top of their voices . The men and the cats dozed . Down by the boats , up to noon the boys had things all their own way , vying in feats of valour . But soon after the dinner-hour the girls asserted themselves by starting an Ambulance Corps , and with details so realistic that not a few of the male combatants hauled out of battle on pretence of wounds and in search of better fun . Nicholas Nanjivell , `` mooning '' by the bridge twelve paces from his door , sharpening his jack-knife upon a soft parapet-stone that was reported to bring cutlery to an incomparable edge and had paid for its reputation , being half worn away -- Nicholas Nanjivell , leaning his weight on the parapet , to ease the pain in his leg -- Nicholas Nanjivell , gloomily contemplating his knife and wishing he could plunge it into the heart of a man who stood behind a counter behind a door which stood in view beyond the bridge-end -- Nicholas Nanjivell , nursing his own injury to the exclusion of any that might threaten Europe -- glanced up and beheld his neighbour Penhaligon 's children , Young ` Bert and ` Beida -LRB- Zobeida -RRB- , approach by the street from the Quay bearing between them a stretcher , composed of two broken paddles and part of an old fishing-net , and on the stretcher , covered by a tattered pilot-jack , a small form -- their brother ` Biades -LRB- Alcibiades -RRB- , aged four . It gave him a scare .