seven o'clock
November , 1873 , ushered in weather that railway men heartily dislike . All day a cold rain had fallen , coating the rails with a thin layer of ice . Drivers of express trains had their work cut out to keep on time , while freight trains straggled in at all hours . `` When I came on duty that night , at seven o'clock , I saw that I was going to have a busy time of it . Until that evening I can truthfully say that I never knew what nervousness was ; but scarcely had I entered the station when I felt suddenly depressed . I attributed the feeling to heat , and tried to pull myself together by poking fun at Herbert , whom I accused of wilfully keeping the trains late in order to shirk handling them . Every night Herbert gave me a written account of the trains handled during the day , and especially drew my attention to any crossing orders that had to be attended to .