half past eight
The days slipped away , with nothing special to mark any one , but all bright with flowers and gay with laughter . The three girls were excellent friends , and grew to understand each other better and better . The morning belonged rather to Margaret and Peggy ; Rita was always late , and often preferred to have her breakfast brought to her room , a practice of which the other girls disapproved highly . They were always out in the garden by half past eight , with breakfast a thing of the past , and the day before them . The stocking-basket generally came with them , and waited patiently in a corner of the green summer-house while they took their `` constitutional , '' which often consisted of a run through the waving fields , or a walk along the top of the broad stone wall that ran around the garden ; or again , a tree-top excursion , as they called it , in the great swing under the chestnut-trees . Then , while they mended their stockings , Margaret would give Peggy a `` talk-lesson , '' the only kind that she was willing to receive , on English history , with an occasional digression to the Trojan war , or the Norse mythology , as the case might be . Peggy detested history , and knew next to nothing of it , and this was a grievous thing to Margaret .