nine o'clock
`` There 's a reward offered -- five dollars for each monkey , '' Palmer Davis reported when he met Meg and Bobby at the school door . `` Yep -- my cousin told me ; and he 's in the Oak Hill _ Daily Advertiser _ office , and I guess he ought to know . '' The majority of the children in Miss Mason 's room stayed downstairs till the `` warning bell '' rang and then hurried to their room to put away their coats and hats in the cloak room . It was Miss Mason 's rule that they must be quietly in their seats , ready for the march to the assembly hall , when the nine o'clock bell rang . `` It 's too cold to hang around out here , so let 's go up , '' suggested Palmer Davis on this morning . `` The warning bell will ring in a minute , anyway . '' Meg and Bobby were willing , especially as the air was sharp and chill , cold enough for snow Meg thought , though of course it never snowed so early in the fall , and they trooped happily upstairs .