half past seven
I had lived too long in the wilderness , where we did not often have any butter , to be thrown off my balance by the accident of a rancid article , and I had certainly eaten buffalo meat that was as much tougher than any beef as sole leather is tougher than brown paper . Strong butter and tough beef are not good , I allow ; but they are by no means the sum total of human misery . I had a clean conscience , and I ate a hearty breakfast . I had been told to be at the counting-room at half past seven ; but I was on hand at seven . I saw several salesmen and laborers in the lumberyard , but there was no one in the counting-room . I seated myself , and picked up the morning paper . I did not find any paragraph announcing my arrival at the great city of the west ; and I suppose it was of no great consequence .