nine a.m.
As to taking your advice , I fully intend to do that whether I like it or not ; but I think , if you will listen to me for a few minutes , you will change your mind in regard to this matter . You know that I am very fond of travelling , and that I dislike the idea of taking up my abode on the top of a three-legged stool , either as a lawyer 's or a merchant 's clerk . Well , unless a man likes his profession , and goes at it with a will , he can not hope to succeed , so that I have no prospect of getting on , I fear , in the line you wish me to adopt . Besides , there are plenty of poor fellows out of work , who love sitting still from nine a.m. to ten p.m. , and whose bread I would be taking out of their mouths by devoting myself to the legal profession , and -- '' At this point Ned hesitated for a moment , and his uncle broke in with -- `` Tell me , now , if every one thought about business as you do , how would the world get on , think you ? '' `` Badly , I fear , '' replied the youth , with a smile ; `` but everybody does n't think of it as I do ; and , tell me , uncle , if everybody thought of business as you would wish me to do , what would come of the soldiers and sailors who defend our empire , and extend our foreign trade , and achieve the grand geographical discoveries that have of late added so much lustre to the British name ? '' Ned flushed and became quite eloquent at this point . `` Now , look at California , '' he continued ; `` there 's a magnificent region , full of gold ; not a mere myth , or an exaggeration , but a veritable fact , attested by the arrival of letters and gold-dust every month .