about ten o'clock
of France , who called for his six or seven course dinner with a mob of howling , bloodthirsty Parisians in his antechamber , and who on the eve of his execution slept well , despite his knowledge that within fifteen hours his head would in all probability be lopped off by the guillotine to gratify the lust for blood which was the chief characteristic of the promoters of the first French Republic . At six on the morning of Thanksgiving Day Jarley was sleeping peacefully , but the youthful Jack was not . Thanksgiving Day was not a holiday in his eyes , but a day set apart for work , thanks to his father 's indulgence in providing him with a football . He had gone to bed the night before with the ball hugged tightly to his breast ; and along about ten o'clock , when Jarley himself had gone into the nursery to put that treasured good-night kiss upon the forehead of his sleeping boy , tired as he was and blue as he was , he had difficulty in repressing the laughter that manifested itself within him , for Jack lay prone , face upward , with the football under the small of his back , and seemingly as comfortable as though he were resting upon eider-down . `` That is certainly a characteristic football attitude , '' Jarley said , when Mrs. Jarley had come to see what had caused her husband 's chuckle . `` Yes -- and so good for the spine ! '' returned Mrs. Jarley .