midnight
Both man and animal are valuable in proportion as they are useful . `` Mike 's '' cow beat my full-blooded . We have an earlier tea this evening than usual , for we have a literary friend who comes about this time of the week , and he must go home to retire about eight o'clock . His nervous system is so weak that he must get three or four hours sleep before midnight ; otherwise he is next day so cross and censorious he scalps every author he can lay his hand on . As he put his hand on the table with an indelible blot of ink on his thumb and two fingers , which blot he had not been able to wash off , I said , `` Well , my old friend Leatherbacks , what books have you been reading to-day ? '' He replied , `` I have been reading ` Men and Things . ' Some books touch only the head and make us think ; other books touch only the heart and make us feel ; here and there one touches us under the fifth rib and makes us laugh ; but the book on ` Men and Things , ' by the Rev. Dr. C.S. Henry , touched me all over .