one P.M.
She was lamentably ignorant on many points where Peggy thought , with her advantages , _ she _ would have been well-informed and able to answer any question proposed . And so the news-loving housekeeper , though she remembered her master 's interests in the article of firewood , was fain to forget them in a matter of far more importance , and broached forth into a long tale of his trials and domestic discomforts . Warming with her discourse as she proceeded , her voice grew so shrill and vehement , that Mr. Pimble , had he not been deeply engaged in poring over the trials his loquacious housekeeper was so eloquently setting forth to her silent and rather inattentive listener , he would have discovered himself the hero of a tale which might have lost Mrs. Peggy Nonee a place she had occupied half a lifetime . But Mr. Pimble sat in bed-gown and slippers till dinner was announced at one P.M. , and the three young Pimbles tumbled into the hall in boisterous glee , just escaped from the restraint of school discipline . They all rushed to the table at once , and called for half a dozen kinds of food in a voice , which the glum , abstracted father heaped indiscriminately on their plates . There was no sound save the clatter of knives and forks for several minutes , while the interesting family discussed their amply-provided and well-prepared meal . At length Master Garrison Pimble , a lad of a dozen years , declared sister Sukey had got the biggest piece of venison pie .