nine o'clock sharp
`` The frogs and katydids do n't keep me awake . '' `` Yes , and that reminds me of another noise that makes the night hideous . It 's the way you people sleep . At nine o'clock sharp , every night , the whole house begins to snore , and -- Say , I 've seen service in France , I 've slept in barracks with scores of tired soldiers , I 've walked through camps where thousands of able-bodied men were snoring their heads off , -- but never have I heard anything so terrifying as the racket that lasts from nine to five in the land of my forefathers . Gad , it sometimes seems to me you 're all trying to make my forefathers turn over in their graves up there on the hill . '' `` You 're kind of peevish today , ai n't you ? '' inquired the other , grinning .