one o'clock at night
It 's time to take myself in hand ; I must buck up and work ... You 're glad to get your salary , so you must do your work honestly , heartily , conscientiously , regardless of sleep and comfort . Chuck taking it easy . You 've got into the way of taking a salary for nothing , my boy -- that 's not the right thing ... not the right thing at all ... '' After administering to himself several such lectures Podtyagin , the head ticket collector , begins to feel an irresistible impulse to get to work . It is past one o'clock at night , but in spite of that he wakes the ticket collectors and with them goes up and down the railway carriages , inspecting the tickets . `` T-t-t-ickets ... P-p-p-please ! '' he keeps shouting , briskly snapping the clippers . Sleepy figures , shrouded in the twilight of the railway carriages , start , shake their heads , and produce their tickets .