nearly noon
`` You are too far from home ever to get back without my help , so you may as well be good and obedient . '' `` What must I do ? '' she asked . `` We will wait until it is nearly noon , when the giant will put his pot on the fire to boil his dinner . We can tell the right time by watching the smoke come out of his chimney . Then you must march straight up to the castle and into the kitchen where the giant is at work , and throw me quickly into the boiling kettle . That is all that you will be required to do . ''