seven o'clock in the morning
` A very fair chronicle for a boy to give , but not what I asked for . When you try to answer a old man 's question , always bear in mind what it was that old man asked . A hide-bound bull is good when well stewed , I make no doubt -- for they who like it ; but that 's not it . What I said was , do you know why three fokes , a rich man , a middling man , and a poor man , should want horses for Knollsea afore seven o'clock in the morning on a blinking day in Fall , when everything is as wet as a dishclout , whereas that 's more than often happens in fine summer weather ? ' ` No -- I do n't know , John hostler . ' ` Then go home and tell your mother that ye be no wide-awake boy , and that old John , who went to school with her father afore she was born or thought o ' , says so ... . Chok ' it all , why should I think there 's sommat going on at Knollsea ?