ten minutes after twelve
`` I do n't think of anything else interesting that happened to Bessie while she was in the city , and soon after the affair of the dead kitten she went home . But I remember another thing that happened about that time which I will tell you after lunch . '' `` Oh , tell it now ! '' demanded Kristy , looking at the clock which pointed to ten minutes after twelve . `` Well ; perhaps there is time , '' said her mother . When Molly was a little girl eight or ten years old , she was living in the city with her two sisters who took care of her . They had no father or mother , and the sisters were clerks in a store , for they had to support themselves .