six o'clock
Of these three the living were the most unfortunate , and among the living Robinson and Josephs . Never since the days of Cain was existence made more bitter to two hapless creatures than to these -- above all to Josephs . His day began thus : Between breakfast and dinner he was set five thousand revolutions of a heavy crank ; when he could not do it his dinner was taken away and a few crumbs of bread and a can of water given him instead . Between his bread and water time and six o'clock if the famished , worn-out lad could not do five thousand more revolutions and make up the previous deficiency he was punished ad libitum . As the whole thing from first to last was beyond his powers , he never succeeded in performing these preposterous tasks . He was threatened , vilified and tortured every day and every hour of it . Human beings can bear great sufferings if you give them periods of ease between ; and beneficent nature allows for this , and when she means us to suffer short of death she lashes us at intervals ; were it otherwise we should succumb under a tithe of what we suffer intermittently .