six
o'clock in the morning
Everybody supposed he had abandoned his ambition to get a portrait of Joan Tregenza ; but one man was in his confidence : Edmund Murdoch . The young artist had been useful to Barron . On many occasions he tramped out from Newlyn with additions to the scanty larder kept at the cow-byre . He would bring hard-boiled eggs , sandwiches , bottles of soda-water and whisky ; and once he arrived at six o'clock in the morning with a pony cart in which was a little oil stove . Barron had confided in Murdoch , but begged he would let it be known that he courted no society for the present . As the work grew he spent more and more time upon it . He explained to his friend quite seriously that he was painting the gorse , but that Joan Tregenza had consented to fill a part of the picture -- a statement which amused the younger artist not a little .