about eight
o'clock
What would he say ? Above all , what would the doctor do ? It was a long time before Nic could settle off to sleep that night , and in consequence he was very late the next morning . Do I mean Nic did not get down till breakfast was ready , about eight o'clock ? No , I do not . This was Australia in its earlier days of the colony , and people 's habits were different from ours . Nic Braydon 's lateness consisted in his being fast asleep when the piping crow began to run up and down its scales to announce that the stars were paling faster , when the laughing jackasses chuckled at the loud crowing of the cocks ; and he was dreaming about Mayne being brought up to the station by mounted police when the sun had been visible an hour .