seven o'clock
`` If I 'd proposed to try to get on the ` reportorial staff ' of a city newspaper you 'd all smile approval , as at a thing suited to my genius . I 'd have to live in town to do that , and what little I earned would go to fill my own hungry mouth . Now at the shops -- you need n't look so top-lofty ! Dozens of fellows who are taking engineering courses put on the overalls , shoulder a lunch-pail and go to work every morning during vacation at seven o'clock . They come grinning home at night , their faces black as tar , their spirits up in Q , jump into a bath-tub , put on clean togs , and come down to dinner looking like gentlemen -- but _ not _ gentlemen any more thoroughly than they have been all day . '' Jeff looked at his brother seriously . `` Lanse , '' he said , `` if you go into one of the locomotive shops wo n't you get a place for me ? ''