eleven o'clock at
night
It would catch his feet and try to trip him ; it would build itself into a wall before him to beat him back ; and he would fling himself into it , plunging like a wounded buffalo , puffing and snorting in rage . So foot by foot he drove his way , and when at last he came to Durham 's he was staggering and almost blind , and leaned against a pillar , gasping , and thanking God that the cattle came late to the killing beds that day . In the evening the same thing had to be done again ; and because Jurgis could not tell what hour of the night he would get off , he got a saloon-keeper to let Ona sit and wait for him in a corner . Once it was eleven o'clock at night , and black as the pit , but still they got home . That blizzard knocked many a man out , for the crowd outside begging for work was never greater , and the packers would not wait long for any one . When it was over , the soul of Jurgis was a song , for he had met the enemy and conquered , and felt himself the master of his fate . -- So it might be with some monarch of the forest that has vanquished his foes in fair fight , and then falls into some cowardly trap in the night-time .