six o'clock Monday morning
Although they had sense enough to understand the real causes of poverty , and the only cure for poverty , they were nevertheless so foolish that they entertained the delusion that it is possible to reason with demented persons , whereas every sane person knows that to reason with a maniac is not only fruitless , but rather tends to fix more deeply the erroneous impressions of his disordered mind . The wagonette containing Rushton and his friends continued to fly over the road , pursued by the one in which rode Crass , Bill Bates , and the Semi-drunk ; but notwithstanding all the efforts of the drunken driver , they were unable to overtake or pass the smaller vehicle , and when they reached the foot of the hill that led up to Windley the distance between the two carriages rapidly increased , and the race was reluctantly abandoned . When they reached the top of the hill Rushton and his friends did not wait for the others , but drove off towards Mugsborough as fast as they could . Crass 's brake was the next to arrive at the summit , and they halted there to wait for the other two conveyances and when they came up all those who lived nearby got out , and some of them sang ` God Save the King ' , and then with shouts of ` Good Night ' , and cries of ` Do n't forget six o'clock Monday morning ' , they dispersed to their homes and the carriages moved off once more . At intervals as they passed through Windley brief stoppages were made in order to enable others to get out , and by the time they reached the top of the long incline that led down into Mugsborough it was nearly twelve o'clock and the brakes were almost empty , the only passengers being Owen and four or five others who lived down town . By ones and twos these also departed , disappearing into the obscurity of the night , until there was none left , and the Beano was an event of the past . The Great Oration The outlook for the approaching winter was -- as usual -- gloomy in the extreme .