midnight
The factory occupied thirteen hours of my day , and being young and husky , I wanted a little time for myself , so there was little left for composition . The San Francisco _ Call _ offered a prize for a descriptive article . My mother urged me to try for it , and I did , taking for my subject `` Typhoon off the Coast of Japan . '' Very tired and sleepy , knowing I had to be up at half-past five , I began the article at midnight and worked straight on until I had written two thousand words , the limit of the article , but with my idea only half worked out . The next night , under the same conditions , I continued , adding another two thousand words before I finished , and then the third night I spent in cutting out the excess , so as to bring the article within the conditions of the contest . The first prize came to me , and the second and third went to students of the Stanford and Berkeley Universities . My success in the San Francisco _ Call _ competition seriously turned my thoughts to writing , but my blood was still too hot for a settled routine , so I practically deferred literature , beyond writing a little gush for the _ Call _ , which that journal promptly rejected .