one P.M.
`` Whenever you 're ready , '' Skinner retorted with a wintry smile . Mr. Peck glanced at a cheap wrist watch . `` It 's twelve o'clock now , '' he soliloquized aloud . `` I 'll pop out , wrap myself around some rations and report on the job at one P.M. I might just as well knock out half a day 's pay . '' He glanced at Cappy Ricks and quoted : `` Count that day lost whose low descending sun Finds prices shot to glory and business done for fun . '' Unable to maintain his composure in the face of such levity during office hours , Mr. Skinner withdrew , still wrapped in his sub-Antarctic dignity . As the door closed behind him , Mr. Peck 's eyebrows went up in a manner indicative of apprehension .