noon
I 'm afraid Mr. Martin wo n't feel quite so generous when he calculates what it will cost . '' The summer vacation was now over , and the Board of Managers of the telegraph company , as well as the other boys of the vicinity , were obliged to go to school again and study something besides the arts of making money and transacting telegraphic business . But as there was not much business of this kind to be done , the school interfered with the company 's affairs in little else than the collection of money due from private individuals for telegraphic services rendered during the late `` rise '' in the creek . The committee which had charge of this collection labored very faithfully for some time , and before and after school and during the noon recess , the members thereof made frequent visits to the houses of the company 's debtors . As there were not more than half-a-dozen debtors , it might have been supposed that the business would be speedily performed . But such was not the case . Mr. Darby , the storekeeper , paid his bill promptly ; and old Mr. Truly Matthews , who had telegraphed to Washington to a nephew in the Patent Office Department , `` just to see how it would go , '' paid what he owed on the eighth visit of Wilson Ogden to his house .