nine o'clock
The older boys knew most of the ships by name . Throughout Saturday the children were -- as their mother agreed -- `` fair out of hand . '' 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 .