twelve o'clock
So they noisily called me a traitor and told me that accusing them was worse than stealing plums . I said that it was n't my intention to tell on them , but I would come and use my whip as soon as they touched the tree . So they laughed and sneered at me and said that they were neither afraid of me nor of my whip . As soon as our lessons were done at twelve o'clock , they ran to the garden and , getting the whip I had hidden in the hallway , I ran after them . Edwin was already half way up the tree and Eugene was just beginning to climb it . First I only threatened and tried in that way to force Edwin down and keep Eugene from going further . But they kept on sneering at me till Edwin had reached the first branch and was shaking it so hard that the lovely plums came spattering to the ground .