twenty minutes to one o'clock
Bull Run slept at her feet and Seven Days lay , half way over on his bobbin cart , so tired that he went to sleep as he tried to climb into it . In other parts of the mill , other little ones slept and even large girls and boys , after eating , dozed or chatted . Spoolers , weavers , slubbers , warpers , nearly grown but all hard-faced , listless -- and many of them slept on shawls and battings of cotton . They were awakened by the big whistle at twenty minutes to one o'clock . At the same time , Jud Carpenter , the foreman , passed down the aisles and dashed cold water in the sleeping faces . Half laughingly he did it , but the little ones arose instantly , and with stooped forms , and tired , cowed eyes , in which the Anglo-Saxon spirit of resentment had been killed by the Yankee spirit of greed , they looked at the foreman , and then began their long six hours ' battle with the bobbins . Three o'clock !