three in the
morning
He saw the girl 's flaxen-yellow hair darken to her mother 's gold as it lengthened into curls and ringlets until finally it became two thick long braids . From striving not to see these many pictures he came even to dwelling upon them in the effort so to fill his consciousness as to keep out the one picture he did not want to see . He remembered his work , the wrecking car , and the wrecking crew that had toiled under him , and he wondered what had become of Clancey , his right - hand man . Came the long day , when , routed from bed at three in the morning to dig a surface car out of the wrecked show windows of a drug store and get it back on the track , they had laboured all day clearing up a half-dozen smash-ups and arrived at the car house at nine at night just as another call came in . `` Glory be ! '' said Clancey , who lived in the next block from him . He could see him saying it and wiping the sweat from his grimy face .