noon
The reason why he had not joined him , as he expected and feared he would , was now apparent . He pitied him , for he realized that he must endure a great deal of pain before he could again go out ; but he finally dismissed the matter with the squire 's sage reflection , that he hoped the calamity would be a good lesson to him . The young merchant did not walk to Boston this time , for he had come to the conclusion that , in the six hours it would take him to travel to the city on foot , the profit on the books he could sell would be more than enough to pay his fare , to say nothing of the fatigue and the expense of shoe leather . Before noon he was at B -- again , as busy as ever in driving his business . The experience of the former week was of great value to him . He visited people belonging to all spheres in society , and , though he was occasionally repulsed or treated with incivility , he was not conscious in a single instance of offending any person 's sense of propriety . He was not as fortunate as during the previous week , and it was Saturday noon before he had sold out the sixty books he carried with him .