seven
o'clock
`` He said you must be tired toting girls around , and he knows everything interesting around here to show you . '' `` Glad of it , '' said Bert . `` You girls are very nice , of course , but a boy needs another fellow in a place like this , '' and he swung himself over the rail of the veranda , instead of walking down the steps . It was quite early , for there was so much planned , to be accomplished before the sun got too hot , that all the children kept to their promise to get up early , and be ready for the day 's fun by seven o'clock . The girls , with Mrs. Bobbsey , Mrs. Minturn , and Freddie , were to go shell hunting , but as Bert had taken that trip with his father on the first morning after their arrival , he preferred to look over the woods and lake at the back of the Minturn home , where the land slid down from the rough cliff upon which the house stood . `` Here comes Hal now , '' called Dorothy , as a boy came whistling up the path . He was taller than Bert , but not much older , and he had a very `` jolly squint '' in his black eyes ; that is , Dorothy called it a `` jolly squint , '' but other people said it was merely a twinkle .