Three o'clock
They were awakened by the big whistle at twenty minutes to one o'clock . At the same time , Jud Carpenter , the foreman , passed down the aisles and dashed cold water in the sleeping faces . Half laughingly he did it , but the little ones arose instantly , and with stooped forms , and tired , cowed eyes , in which the Anglo-Saxon spirit of resentment had been killed by the Yankee spirit of greed , they looked at the foreman , and then began their long six hours ' battle with the bobbins . Three o'clock ! The warm afternoon 's sun poured on the low flat tin roof of the mill and warmed the interior to a temperature which was uncomfortable . Shiloh grew sleepy -- she dragged her stumbling little feet along , and had she stopped but a moment , she had paid the debt that childhood owes to fairy-land . The air was close -- stifling .