one o'clock in the morning
`` As I always am , '' said Hans , drying his tears . -LSB- Illustration : `` IT WAS A WEARY VIGIL , BUT HE WAS TRUE '' -RSB- And so it was that Hans Pumpernickel began his long vigil . He sat in the kitchen , silent , smoking , gazing at the ceiling , wishing . It was weary work indeed , but he was true , and last year , on the sixteenth day of July , at half-past one o'clock in the morning , his fidelity was rewarded , though he did not know it until the next morning , when the expressman brought him a message from his father to the following effect : '' _ July 16 , 1893 . _ `` MY DEAR HANS , -- Do n't worry ; everything is serene again . At half-past one o'clock this morning , just as the clock struck , your great-great-great-great-great-granduncle began to grow at a most rapid pace . I had hardly time to drop him when he was taller than I , and twice as stout as I am told you are .