four o'clock
`` Hurry home , boy , '' he called out , in that great kind voice which Jerome so loved -- `` hurry home ; you 've got something good for supper ! '' and he gave the boy , ducking low before him with the love and gratitude which had overcome largely the fierce and callous pride in his young heart , a hearty slap on the shoulder as he went past . There was a good district school in the village , and Jerome , before his father 's disappearance , had attended it all the year round ; now he went only in winter . Jerome rose at four o'clock in the dark winter mornings , and went to bed at ten , getting six hours ' sleep . It was fortunate that he was a hardy boy , with a wirily pliant frame , adapting itself , with no lesions , to extremes of temperature and toil , even to extremes of mental states . In spite of all his hardships , in spite of scanty food , Jerome thrived ; he grew ; he began to fill out better his father 's clothes , to which he had succeeded . The first time Jerome wore his poor father 's best coat to school -- Ann had set in the buttons so it folded about him in ludicrous fashion , bringing the sleeves forward and his arms apparently into the middle of his chest -- one of the big boys and two big girls at his side laughed at him , the boy with open jeers , the girls with covert giggles behind their hands .