ten o'clock
But yet He who from eternity watches the consequences of a deed develop like a thread through the loom of the centuries , He who weighs the value of a second and has ordained for His creatures as an elemental law progress and development , He , if He is just , will demand a strict accounting from those who must render it , of the millions of intelligences darkened and blinded , of human dignity trampled upon in millions of His creatures , and of the incalculable time lost and effort wasted ! And if the teachings of the Gospel are based on truth , so also will these have to answer -- the millions and millions who do not know how to preserve the light of their intelligences and their dignity of mind , as the master demanded an accounting from the cowardly servant for the talent that he let be taken from him . The house where Makaraig lived was worth visiting . Large and spacious , with two entresols provided with elegant gratings , it seemed to be a school during the first hours of the morning and pandemonium from ten o'clock on . During the boarders ' recreation hours , from the lower hallway of the spacious entrance up to the main floor , there was a bubbling of laughter , shouts , and movement . Boys in scanty clothing played _ sipa _ or practised gymnastic exercises on improvised trapezes , while on the staircase a fight was in progress between eight or nine armed with canes , sticks , and ropes , but neither attackers nor attacked did any great damage , their blows generally falling sidewise upon the shoulders of the Chinese pedler who was there selling his outlandish mixtures and indigestible pastries . Crowds of boys surrounded him , pulled at his already disordered queue , snatched pies from him , haggled over the prices , and committed a thousand deviltries .