thirty-seven minutes after eight
`` Jim , '' I said to the private , `` I have got to build a bridge across this stream strong enough to cross artillery . I shall report to the general that he can send , along his artillery at seventeen minutes after eight o clock this evening . Am I right ? '' `` Well , '' said Jim , as he looked at the standing timber , at the stream , and spit some black tobacco juice down on the red ground , `` I should make it thirty-seven minutes after eight . You see , a shell may drop in here and kill a mule , or something , and delay us . Make it thirty-seven , and I will go you . '' We finally compromised by splitting the difference , and I sent a courier back to the general , with my compliments , and with the information that at precisely eight o clock and twenty-seven minutes he could start across .