twelve o'clock
But , if I was much affected , the callant Mungo was a great deal more . From the days in which he had lain in his cradle , he had been brought up in a remote and quiet part of the country , far from the bustling of towns , and from man encountering man in the stramash of daily life ; so that his heart seemed to pine within him like a flower , for want of the blessed morning dew ; and , like a bird that has been catched in a girn among the winter snows , his appetite failed him , and he fell away from his meat and his clothes . I was vexed exceedingly to see the callant in this dilemmy , for he was growing very tall and thin , his chaft-blades being lank and white , and his eyes of a hollow drumliness , as if he got no refreshment from the slumbers of the night . Beholding all this work of destruction going on in silence , I spoke to his friend Mrs Grassie about him , and she was so motherly as to offer to have a glass of port-wine , stirred with best jesuit 's barks , ready for him every forenoon at twelve o'clock ; for really nobody could be but interested in the laddie , he was so gentle and modest , making never a word of complaint , though melting like snow off a dyke ; and , though he must have suffered both in body and mind , enduring all with a silent composure , worthy of a holy martyr . Perceiving things going on from bad to worse , I thought it was best to break the matter to him , as he was never like to speak himself ; and I asked him in a friendly way , as we were sitting together on the board finishing a pair of fustian overalls for Maister Bob Bustle -- a riding clerk for one of the Edinburgh spirit shops , but who liked aye to have his clothes of the Dalkeith cut , having been born , bred , and educated in our town , like his forbears before him -- if there was anything the matter with him , that he was aye so dowie and heartless ? Never shall I forget the look he gave me as he lifted up his eyes , in which I could see visible distress painted as plain as the figures of the saints on old kirk windows ; but he told me , with a faint smile , that he had nothing particular to complain of , only that he would have liked to have died among his friends , as he could not live from home , and away from the life he had been accustomed to all his days . ` Od , I was touched to the quick ; and when I heard him speaking of death in such a calm , quiet way , I found something , as if his words were words of prophecy , and as if I had seen a sign that told me he was not to be long for this world .