twelve
o'clock
was his laconic rejoinder -- nothing more , but the sentence was sufficiently expressive . Every day of the week , with the exception of Sundays , it had been always Pompey 's privilege to have a quartern of rum served out to him , as if he were on board ship , at twelve o'clock , the ordinary grog-time ; and , punctually at that hour every day , in the wet season or dry , he never failed to come up to the house for his allowance , bringing with him the footless wine-glass to receive the grateful liquor . His appearance , consequently , was an unfailing token that the sun had crossed the zenith and that it was time to `` make it eight bells . '' Unlike the majority of his dark-complexioned brethren , who are generally loquacious in the extreme , Pompey was singularly reticent of speech , never varying this parrot-like formula of his when coming at twelve o'clock for his daily stimulant , without which he would never set about his afternoon work . `` U 'm come , rum ! '' was all he would say ever since he had been taken over by my father with the other belongings of the plantation ; and , as he was an old `` hand , '' the former proprietor related , and had always been similarly indulged with a quartern of rum at mid-day as far back as he could recollect , old Pompey -- and precious old he must have been by this reckoning -- had evidently grown into the habit , so that it was part of himself . Entering the house through one of the low window-less windows which opened out on to the verandah , like the ports in the side of a ship -- ventilation being everything in the tropics and closed doors and shut-up rooms unheard of , as everybody was free to walk in and out of the different apartments just as they pleased -- I soon brought out a case - bottle from the sideboard where it stood handy for the purpose .