nine o'clock
Dane had invited him to dinner . He had arranged that there should be plates or saucers enough for each person to have two . And now there was to be a chicken - pie from Obed Shalom , some mince pies and Marlborough pies from the Union for Christian Work , a turkey at each end of the board ; and he found he should have left over , after the largest computation for the appetites of the visitors , twenty-three pies of different structure , five dishes of cranberry sauce , three or four boxes of raisins , two or three drums of figs , two roasted geese and eleven turkeys . He counted all the turkeys as roasted , because he had the promise of the keeper of the Montgomery House that he would roast for him all the birds that were brought in to him before nine o'clock on Thanksgiving morning . Having stated all this on a list carefully written , first in the English language and second in the language of the Hebrews , Frederick called his fellow - lodgers together earlier than usual on the evening before Thanksgiving Day . He explained to them , in the patois which they used together , that it would be indecent for them to carry this supply of food farther than next Monday for their own purposes . He told them that the occasion was one of exuberant thanksgiving to the God of heaven .