midnight
Late in the evening after the family had retired , he sat before the stove with back humped and knees drawn up trying to coax a coarse thread through a small needle . Surely no rich man need have any fear about entering the kingdom of heaven since Joe Ridder managed to get that particular thread through the eye of that particular needle ! But when a boy is put at a work-bench at twelve years of age and does the same thing day in and day out for seven long years , he may have lost all of the things that youth holds dear , but one thing he is apt to have learned , a dogged , plodding , unquestioning patience that shoves silently along at the appointed task until the work is done . By midnight all the rents were mended and a large new patch adorned each elbow . The patches , to be sure , were blue , and the coat was black , but the stitches were set with mechanical regularity . Joe straightened his aching shoulders and held the garment at arm 's length with a smile . It was his first votive offering at the shrine of love .