Nine o'clock
We 'll hit the Junction plumb on time with Christmas Day . Are you cold ? Sit closer , son . '' Nine o'clock at last , and the drudging toil of the day was ended . Lena climbed to her room in the third half-story of the Quarrymen 's Hotel . Since daylight she had slaved , doing the work of a full-grown woman , scrubbing the floors , washing the heavy ironstone plates and cups , making the beds , and supplying the insatiate demands for wood and water in that turbulent and depressing hostelry . The din of the day 's quarrying was over -- the blasting and drilling , the creaking of the great cranes , the shouts of the foremen , the backing and shifting of the flat-cars hauling the heavy blocks of limestone .