midnight
I saw boxes and barrels by thousands marked `` Rush . '' And they were rushed ! On one dock I saw the dockers begin at seven in the morning and when I came back late in the evening the same men were there . At midnight I went home to sleep . When I came back at daybreak the same men were there , and I watched them straining through the last rush until the ship sailed that day at noon . They had worked for twenty-nine hours . In that last hour I drew close -- so close that I could feel them heaving , sweating , panting , feel their laboring hearts and lungs .