about ten minutes to eight
On the Monday morning after the Beano he was painting an upper room in a house where several other men were working , and it was customary for the coddy to shout ` Yo ! Ho ! ' at mealtimes , to let the hands know when it was time to leave off work . At about ten minutes to eight , Jim had squared the part of the work he had been doing -- the window -- so he decided not to start on the door or the skirting until after breakfast . Whilst he was waiting for the foreman to shout ` Yo ! Ho ! ' his mind reverted to the Beano , and he began to hum the tunes of some of the songs that had been sung .