five in the morning
Amaryllis and Mrs. Iden used often to watch him covertly , just for the amusement it gave them . He went about it as steadily and deliberately as the horses go to plough ; no attempt to caracole in the furrow , ready to stand still as long as you like . Bacon three inches thick with fat : the fat of beef ; fat of mutton -- anything they could not finish in the sitting-room ; the overplus of cabbage or potatoes , savoury or unsavoury ; vast slices of bread and cheese ; ale , and any number of slop-basins full of tea -- the cups were not large enough -- and pudding , cold dumpling , hard as wood , no matter what , Jearje ate steadily through it . A more willing fellow never lived ; if Mrs. Iden happened to want anything from the town ever so late , though George had worked hard the long day through from half-past five in the morning , off he would start , without sign of demur , five miles there and back , and come in singing with his burden . There are such , as George still among the labourer class , in despite of the change of circumstance and sentiment , men who would be as faithful as the faithfullest retainer who ever accompanied a knight of old time to the Crusade . But , observe , for a good man there must be a good master . Proud Iden was a good master , who never forgot that his man was not a piece of mechanism , but flesh and blood and feelings .