five o'clock
Men younger than he had passed him , attaining the position of foreman and the like ; some had earned money by inventions which they put at the service of their employers ; but Gilbert could hope for nothing more than the standing of a trustworthy mechanic , who , as long as he keeps his strength , can count on daily bread . His heart was not in his work ; it would have been strange if he had thriven by an industry which was only a weariness to him . His hours were from six in the morning to seven at night . Ah , that terrible rising at five o'clock , when it seemed at first as if he must fall back again in sheer anguish of fatigue , when his eyeballs throbbed to the light and the lids were as if weighted with iron , when the bitterness of the day before him was like poison in his heart ! He could not live as his fellow-workmen did , coming home to satisfy his hunger and spend a couple of hours in recreation , then to well-earned sleep . Every minute of freedom , of time in which he was no longer a machine but a thinking and desiring man , he held precious as fine gold . How could he yield to heaviness and sleep , when books lay open before him , and Knowledge , the goddess of his worship , whispered wondrous promises ?