six in the morning
Life changed its aspect entirely . Gone were the days of vagabondage , the lazy , the delicious even though cold and hungry hours of dreaming and reading in the brickfield ; gone was the happy freedom of the chartered libertine of the gutter . He was bound , a little slave , like hundreds of other little slaves and thousands of big ones , to a relentless machine . He entered the hopeless factory gate at six in the morning and left it at half-past five in the evening ; and , his rough food swallowed , slunk to his kennel in the scullery like a little tired dog . And Mr. Button drank , and beat Mrs. Button , and Mrs. Button beat Paul whenever she felt in the humour and had anything handy to do it with , and , as a matter of course , confiscated his wages on Saturday and set him to mind the baby on Sunday afternoons . In the monotony , weariness and greyness of life the glory of the Vision began to grow dim . In the factory he was not thrown into competition with other boys .