the hour of eight
He considered writing home to his father and recounting the story of his good fortune to him , for it seemed that he must talk to someone about it , and he even dragged a pad of paper toward him and unscrewed his fountain pen . But , after tracing meaningless scrawls for several minutes , he gave it up . He did n't want to write a letter ; he wanted to talk to Tom ! He saw the hands of his watch creep toward the hour of eight , after which he might give up pretence of study , don a sweater and a pair of canvas `` sneakers '' and go over to the gymnasium . The thought of that and of the next three days put him in a blue funk . What if he could n't learn the signals , or , having learned them , forgot them in the game ? What if he disappointed Andy and Coach Robey when the time came ?