six o'clock
Said I 'd got to pay for his traveling and hotel expenses . I 'm not charging you , Leslie , and you ought to feel grateful to me . '' Winter was drawing towards its close at last , when , on the evening of a day in which the result of a heavy blasting charge had exceeded his utmost expectations , Geoffrey Thurston stood beside his foreman in his workmen 's mess shanty . Tin lamps hung from the beams blackened with smoke , and sturdy men were finishing their six o'clock supper beneath them . The men were the pick of the province , for , until tempted by the contractor 's high wages , most of them had been engaged in laying the foundations of its future greatness by wresting new spaces for corn and cattle from the forest . They ate , as they worked , heroically . The supper was varied and bountiful , for Geoffrey , who was conscious of a thrill of pride as he glanced down the long rows of weather-beaten faces , fed his workmen well .