nearly an hour before six o'clock
And John , looking into the darkening street , must have seen something besides the commonplace couple that he thought he saw ; for as he turned away to light his lamp and go to work again , he smiled . Surely there was nothing to smile at in the thing he saw . Perhaps God was trying to make him see the flowers . But he did not see them , and as it was nearly an hour before six o'clock , he turned to his work under the lamp and finished his letter to Bob Hendricks . When it was written , he read it over carefully , crossing his `` t 's '' and dotting his `` i 's , '' and as no one was in the room he mumbled it aloud , thus : -- `` DEAR BOB : -- Do n't get blue ; it will be all right . Stick to it . I am laying a wire that will get you an audience with Jay Gould .