eleven o'clock on Sunday
Human affairs are subject to such an infinite variety of changes and complications , that any attempt to lay down particular rules for individual action , under peculiar circumstances , must prove a failure . Hence I consider proverbs , generally speaking , to be a failure , only used by weak-minded men , who have no opinion of their own . Thus , if you have a chance of selling your station at fifteen shillings , and buying in , close to a new gold-field on the same terms , where fat sheep are going to the butcher at from eighteen shillings to a pound , butter , eggs , and garden produce at famine prices , some dolt unsettles you , and renders you uncertain and miserable by saying that `` rolling stone gathers no moss ; '' as if you wanted moss ! Again , having worked harder than the Colonial Secretary all the week , and wishing to lie in bed till eleven o'clock on Sunday , a man comes into your room at half-past seven , on a hot morning , when your only chance is to sleep out an hour or so of the heat , and informs you that the `` early bird gets the worms . '' I had a partner , who bought in after Jim Stockbridge was killed , who was always flying this early bird , when he could n't sleep for musquitoes . I have got rid of him now ; but for the two years he was with me , the dearest wish of my heart was that my tame magpie Joshua could have had a quiet two minutes with that early bird before any one was up to separate them . I rather fancy he would have been spoken of as `` the late early bird '' after that .