nine
o'clock
Then an _ American _ ship-master is usually superior to those of other countries . This arises from some of the peculiarities of our institutions , as well as from the circumstance that the navy is so small . Among other improvements , my father had broken in upon the venerable American custom of swallowing a meal as soon as out of bed . The breakfast at Clawbonny , from my earliest infancy , or as long as I can remember , had been eaten regularly at nine o'clock , a happy medium between the laziness of dissipation and the hurry of ill-formed habits . At that hour the whole family used to meet , still fresh from a night 's repose , and yet enlivened and gay by an hour or two of exercise in the open air , instead of coming to the family board half asleep , with a sort of drowsy sulkiness , as , if the meal were a duty , and not a pleasure . We ate as leisurely as keen appetites would permit ; laughed , chatted , related the events of the morning , conversed of our plans for the day , and indulged our several tastes and humours , like people who had been up and stirring , and not like so many drowsy drones swallowing our food for form 's sake . The American breakfast has been celebrated by several modern writers , and it deserves to be , though certainly not to be compared to that of France .