half past three in the morning
But even then the stark simplicity of his life was a luxury . His meals cost him three dollars a week , and that most serious item began to worry him , but not for long . Within two weeks he was meeting a part of that outlay by delivering the morning daily paper of the town . This meant getting up at half past three in the morning , after a sleep of five hours and a half , but if this should begin to wear on him , he would simply go earlier to bed ; there was no sign of wear and tear , however , for the boy was as tough as a bolt-proof black gum-tree back in the hills , his capacity for work was prodigious , and the early rising hour but lengthened the range of each day 's activities . Indeed Jason missed nothing and nothing missed him . His novitiate passed quickly , and while his fund for `` breakage '' was almost gone , he had , without knowing it , drawn no little attention to himself . He had wandered innocently into `` Heaven '' -- the seniors ' hall -- a satanic offence for a freshman , and he had been stretched over a chair , `` strapped , '' and thrown out .