five o'clock in the morning
One morning as Jurgis was passing , a furnace blew out , spraying two men with a shower of liquid fire . As they lay screaming and rolling upon the ground in agony , Jurgis rushed to help them , and as a result he lost a good part of the skin from the inside of one of his hands . The company doctor bandaged it up , but he got no other thanks from any one , and was laid up for eight working days without any pay . Most fortunately , at this juncture , Elzbieta got the long-awaited chance to go at five o'clock in the morning and help scrub the office floors of one of the packers . Jurgis came home and covered himself with blankets to keep warm , and divided his time between sleeping and playing with little Antanas . Juozapas was away raking in the dump a good part of the time , and Elzbieta and Marija were hunting for more work . Antanas was now over a year and a half old , and was a perfect talking machine .