midnight
There were we with food enough to stuff the tribe torpid as winter toads . The padre was sent round to the lodges with a tom-tom to beat every soul to the feast . Chouart and a Dutch prisoner and I cooked like kings ' scullions for four mortal hours ! -- '' `` We wanted to delay the feast till midnight , '' explains Groseillers . `` And at midnight in trooped every man , woman , and brat of the encampment . The padre takes a tom-tom and stands at one end of the lodge beating a very knave of a rub-a-dub and shouting at the top of his voice : ` Eat , brothers , eat ! Bulge the eye , swell the coat , loose the belt !