twelve o'clock
I am sorry , very sorry , indeed , to place you amongst the `` pedants ; '' but truth , my dear sir -- my dear shade , compels me to do so . Set you once upon fishing , and there was no end of it -- from Dan to Beersheba , on you went . Here you killed a salmon of fourteen pounds weight , after playing him up pool and down stream for at least six hours ; there , you hooked another , which broke your line , and curvetted away to the tune of `` I care for nobody , no not I , If nobody cares for me . '' Again , you filled your basket ere twelve o'clock , and gave up fishing merely because you could carry no more . And then , such adventures ! One day you lost yourself in the mist -- found a tethered horse -- wandered for hours , and then encountered the same tethered horse again . At another time , you came upon a cottage in the muirland with a lame crow ; and , after much wandering , came again upon the same object .