five in
the morning
Godfrey found that there was no Sunday break in the work at Kara , but that once a fortnight the whole of the occupants of the ward had baths , and upon these days no work was done . Upon a good many saints ' days they also rested ; so that , practically , they had a holiday about once in every ten days . For his own part he would have been glad had the work gone on without these breaks . When the men started for work at five in the morning , and returned to the prison at seven at night , the great majority , after smoking a pipe or two , turned in at once , while upon the days when there was no work quarrels were frequent ; and , what was to him still more objectionable , men told stories of their early lives , and seemed proud rather than otherwise of the horrible crimes they had committed . His own time did not hang at all heavy upon his hands . One of the Tartar prisoners who spoke Russian was glad enough to agree , in exchange for a sufficient amount of tobacco to enable him to smoke steadily while so employed , to teach him his own dialect . Godfrey found , as he had expected , a sufficient similarity between the two languages to assist him very greatly , and with two hours ' work every evening , and a long bout on each holiday , he made rapid progress with it , especially as he got into the habit of going over and over again through the vocabulary of all the words he had learned , while he was at work in the mine .