ten o'clock
These were busy days in the once quiet and sleepy office of the Santa Paloma Morning Mail . A wave of energy and vigor swept over the place , affecting everybody from the fat , spoiled office cat , who found himself pushed out of chairs , and bounced off of folded coats with small courtesy , to the new editor-manager and the lady whose timely investment had brought this pleasant change about . Old Kelly , the proof-reader , night clerk , Associated Press manager , and assistant editor , shouted and swore with a vim unknown of late years ; Miss Watson , who `` covered '' social events , clubs , public dinners , `` dramatic , '' and `` hotels , '' cleaned out her desk , and took her fancy-work home , and `` Fergy , '' a freckled youth who delighted in calling himself a `` cub , '' although he did little more than run errands and carry copy to the press-room , might even be seen batting madly at an unused typewriter when actual duties failed , so inspiring was the new atmosphere . Mrs. Burgoyne had a desk and a corner of her own , where her trim figure might be seen daily for an hour or two , from ten o'clock until the small girls came in to pick her up on their way home from school for luncheon . Barry found her brimming with ideas . She instituted the `` Women 's Page , '' the old familiar page of answered questions , and formulas for ginger-bread , and brief romances , and scraps of poetry , and she offered through its columns a weekly cash prize for contributions on household topics . An exquisite doll appeared in the window of the Mail office , a doll with a flower-wreathed hat , and a ruffled dress , and a little parasol to match the dress , and loitering little girls , drawn from all over the village to study this dream of beauty , learned that they had only to enter a loaf of bread of their own making in the Mail contest , to stand a chance of carrying the little lady home .