Seven o'clock
Already the yards were full of activity ; cattle were being unloaded from the cars in the distance , and across the way the `` beef-luggers '' were toiling in the darkness , carrying two-hundred-pound quarters of bullocks into the refrigerator cars . Before the first streaks of daylight there came the crowding throngs of workingmen , shivering , and swinging their dinner pails as they hurried by . Jurgis took up his stand by the time-office window , where alone there was light enough for him to see ; the snow fell so quick that it was only by peering closely that he could make sure that Ona did not pass him . Seven o'clock came , the hour when the great packing machine began to move . Jurgis ought to have been at his place in the fertilizer mill ; but instead he was waiting , in an agony of fear , for Ona . It was fifteen minutes after the hour when he saw a form emerge from the snow mist , and sprang toward it with a cry . It was she , running swiftly ; as she saw him , she staggered forward , and half fell into his outstretched arms .