midnight
I checked the beastly stuff off as well as I could , taking the Vancouver wholesalers ' word for the names of half the things , for I was quite sure they knew better than I did about them . With the assistance of Jake , as `` hander-up , '' I set the goods in a semblance of order on the shelves and about the store . We worked and slaved as if it were the last day and our eternal happiness depended on our finishing the job before the last trump sounded its blast of dissolution . By the last stroke of twelve , midnight , we had the front veranda swept clean of straw , paper and excelsior , and all empty boxes cleared away ; just in time to welcome the advent of my first Sabbath day in the Canadian West . Throughout our arduous afternoon and evening , what a surprise old Jake was to me ! Well I knew that he was hard and tough from years of strenuous battling with the northern elements ; but that he , at his age and with his record for hard drinking , should be able to keep up the sustained effort against a young man in his prime and that he should do so cheerfully and without a word of complaint , -- save an occasional grunt when the steel bands around some of the boxes proved recalcitrant , and an explosive , picturesque oath when the end of a large case dropped over on his toes , -- was , to me , little short of marvellous . Already , I was beginning to think that Mr. K. B. Horsfal had erred in regard to his man and that it was Jake Meaghan who was twenty-four carat gold .