five minutes to ten
His legs in particular shook so much that he felt that unless he could sit down for a little , he would FALL down . He lowered the handle very carefully so as not to spill the whitewash out of the pail which was hanging from a hook under the cart , then , sitting down on the kerbstone , he leaned wearily against the wheel . A little way down the road was a church with a clock in the tower . It was five minutes to ten by this clock . Bert said to himself that when it was ten he would make another start . Whilst he was resting he thought of many things . Just behind that church was a field with several ponds in it where he used to go with other boys to catch effets .