nine a.m.
`` Why , our goods-manager informs me that there is a certain noble lord , whom of course I may not name in public , who has a farm at a considerable distance out of town . He has a fancy that the milk and cream produced on his own farm is better than Metropolitan milk and cream -- -LRB- laughter -RRB- . He therefore resolves to have fresh milk and cream sent in from his farm every morning , and asks us to carry it for him . We agree ; but he further insists that the milk and cream shall be delivered at his residence punctually at nine a.m. To this we also agree , because the thing can be done ; yet it is sharp practice , for it is only by the train arriving at its time , punctually to a minute , and by our horse and van being in readiness to start the instant it is loaded , that the thing can be accomplished . Now , gentlemen , it is owing to the extreme care and vigorous superintendence of our goods -- I had almost said our good-manager that that noble lord has never missed his milk or cream one morning during the last six months . And the same punctuality attends the milk-delivery of ` Brown , Jones , and Robinson , ' for railways , as a rule , are no respecters of persons . Should not this , I ask , infuse a little of the milk of human kindness into the public heart in reference to railways ?