three minutes to eight
One has to shave , collect the necessary papers , put on one 's boots , pocket tobacco and matches , run upstairs for a fresh handkerchief , things that somehow or other take time . As a rule we find ourselves halfway to the station , running breathlessly , only to find that we have two left-hand gloves , or that some vitally important document has been left behind . The seasoned commuter , by long and arduous practice , eliminates these errors ; but we , who go to New York but once in a week or so , are unskilled in early morning hustles , and generally see the tail-end of the express disappearing in the cutting . This morning , however , I managed to get out of the house by three minutes to eight , sufficient time for an athlete to do the half-mile to the station . With a silent prayer that the train might be a few minutes overdue I raced across the lot and down Pine Street . I saw , as I hurried down the straight incline of Walnut Avenue , that I was in time , and slackened my pace to a walk . The morning , as I had expected , was clear and cold ; a sharp frost had glazed the puddles in the roadway , and on the uplands of the further bank of the Pasayack River light patches of snow lay among the trees .