five o'clock
said I to my sympathetic friend , whose countenance wore a cast of the deepest dejection . `` You have ruined yourself , Mr. Frank , that 's all . When your father talks in that quiet determined manner , there will be no more change in him than in a fitted account . '' And so it proved ; for the next morning , at five o'clock , I found myself on the road to York , mounted on a reasonably good horse , and with fifty guineas in my pocket ; travelling , as it would seem , for the purpose of assisting in the adoption of a successor to myself in my father 's house and favour , and , for aught I knew , eventually in his fortune also . The slack sail shifts from side to side , The boat , untrimm 'd , admits the tide , Borne down , adrift , at random tost , The oar breaks short , the rudder 's lost . Gay 's _ Fables . _ I have tagged with rhyme and blank verse the subdivisions of this important narrative , in order to seduce your continued attention by powers of composition of stronger attraction than my own .