twelve o'clock
Bosom friends , reunited after three weeks ' separation , celebrated their reunion with paeans of jubilation and war-whoops of triumph . `` Cargoes '' were being unladen here ; Liddell-and-Scott was officiating as a cricket ball there ; a siege was going on round this door , and a hand-to-hand scrimmage between the posts of that . A few of the placid ones were quietly unpacking in the midst of the Babel , and one or two were actually writing home . Our heroes , fancying the looks neither of the matron 's hall nor of the lobby upstairs , deemed it prudent to retreat as quickly as possible to the junior schoolroom , there to await , in the calm atmosphere of expectant scholarship , the ringing of the twelve o'clock bell . Has the reader ever visited that famous resort of youth , the Zoo ? Has he stood on that terrace five minutes before dinner-time and listened to the deep-mouthed growl of the lion , the barking of the wolf , the shriek of the hyaena , as they pace their cages and await their meal ? Then , turning on his heel , has he quitted that stately scene and pushed back the door of the monkey house ?