hour before noon
`` Is it an iron chest ? '' She really half-believed that Bobby had found the pirate 's buried treasure . The twins were scrambling over the rocks and they heard Meg 's cry . Mother Blossom had kept them as long as she could , but they had insisted on setting out a half hour before noon and they had run most of the way , the lunch basket bumping wildly in time to their steps . Their faces red from the heat and streaming with perspiration , they burst into the ruins of the Harley house just as Bobby brushed the dirt from his find . `` I do n't know what it is , '' said Bobby , trying to look closely at the odd-shaped little thing in his hand , with three children insisting on seeing it at the same time . `` Look out , Dot , you nearly made me drop it . ''