8 A.M.
`` The countryman of whom you speak is up and doing long before you or I or your successful merchant , who has waxed great on noise as you put it , is awake . If the early bird catches the worm , what becomes of your theory ? '' `` The early bird does get the bait , '' replied the Idiot . `` But he does not catch the fish , and I 'll offer the board another wager that the Belgian block merchant is wider awake at 8 A.M. , when he first opens his eyes , than his suburban brother who gets up at five is all day . It 's the extent to which the eyes are opened that counts , and as for your statement that the fact that prosperity and noisy streets go hand in hand is true only because it happens to be so , that is an argument which may be applied to any truth in existence . I am because I happen to be , not because I am . You are what you are because you are , because if you were not , you would not be what you are . ''