twelve o'clock
The piles were taken away in long and deep barrows which men wheeled into the room , the boxes were carried off , emptied into the vats , and brought back again ; some of the girls swept the floor and tables by which they stood ; talking was permitted in this half-hour , and such a Babel as the tongues of forty or fifty girls suddenly unloosed can make may be better imagined than described . The `` new hand '' took advantage of the interval to divest herself of her cap and apron , and putting on her hat , after washing her hands in one of the row of basins provided for the purpose , appeared as neat and nice for her homeward walk as she had done in the morning when she came . Such was not the case with most of the girls , whose fluffy , disordered appearance as they issued from the rag-room was proverbial . At precisely twelve o'clock the great bells began to clang and the steam-whistle to shriek , and the long corridors and stairs echoed to the tramp of many feet as the hundreds of men , women , boys , and girls rushed down and out , and scattered in every direction toward the many homes where dinner was awaiting them . Eric and Alfred met their sister just outside of the door , and the three were soon at home , Katie talking so much and so fast all the way , that her brothers , as they said , `` could hardly get in a word edgewise . '' Many of the mill operatives carried their dinner with them and spent the noon hour in gossip with each other , but Mrs. Robertson was careful both of the bodies and souls of her children . She knew that the former would be much more vigorous if every day they had a warm , comfortable , if frugal , meal at noontide , and thought that the latter would be kept pure and unsullied much longer if not exposed to the kind of talk apt to pass between idle men and women of all grades and associations in society .