six o'clock
As soon as he had finished he caught up his candle , and with a nod to Mrs. Haden ran upstairs to his room . Jack Simpson 's craze for learning , as it was regarded by the other lads of Stokebridge , was the subject of much joking and chaff among them . Had he been a shy and retiring boy , holding himself aloof from the sports of his mates , ridicule would have taken the place of joking , and persecution of chaff . But Jack was so much one of themselves , a leader in their games , a good fellow all round , equally ready to play or to fight , that the fact that after six o'clock he shut himself up in his room and studied , was regarded as something in the nature of a humorous joke . When he had first begun , his comrades all predicted that the fit would not last , and that a few weeks would see the end of it ; but weeks and months and years had gone by , and Jack kept on steadily at the work he had set himself to do . Amusement had long died away , and there grew up an unspoken respect for their comrade . `` He be a rum ` un , be Jack , '' they would say ; `` he looves games , and can lick any chap his age anywhere round , and yet he shoots himself oop and reads and reads hours and hours every day , and he knows a heap , Bull-dog does . ''