ten o'clock
Thus , Penrod woke , next morning , with neither the unspared rod , nor Mr. Kinosling in his mind . Tar , itself , so far as his consideration of it went , might have been an undiscovered substance . His mood was cheerful and mercantile ; some process having worked mysteriously within him , during the night , to the result that his first waking thought was of profits connected with the sale of old iron -- or perhaps a ragman had passed the house , just before he woke . By ten o'clock he had formed a partnership with the indeed amiable Sam , and the firm of Schofield and Williams plunged headlong into commerce . Heavy dealings in rags , paper , old iron and lead gave the firm a balance of twenty-two cents on the evening of the third day ; but a venture in glassware , following , proved disappointing on account of the scepticism of all the druggists in that part of town , even after seven laborious hours had been spent in cleansing a wheelbarrow-load of old medicine bottles with hydrant water and ashes . Likewise , the partners were disheartened by their failure to dispose of a crop of `` greens , '' although they had uprooted specimens of that decorative and unappreciated flower , the dandelion , with such persistence and energy that the Schofields ' and Williams ' lawns looked curiously haggard for the rest of that summer . The fit passed : business languished ; became extinct .