nine o'clock
A sanded path ran along by the rose-bed , which was banked up for two feet or so to keep the soil from washing down in the rainy season . Prudence and Grizzel stopped at a corner where , in a sheltered angle , lay a low pile of bricks built up four-square with a hollow centre . `` This is our fire-place , '' Prue explained to Mollie . `` When we get up very early we make a fire here and boil tea and have a secret breakfast , because proper breakfast is n't till nine o'clock when Miss Hilton is mistress , and we get so hungry -- besides , it is a lark . '' `` Write out ` lark ' one hundred times , my dear Prudence , '' said Grizzel , in a voice so exactly like Miss Hilton 's that Mollie looked round with a start , and the other two laughed . They gathered sticks , which they carried into the kitchen to be dried , Bridget being a good-natured conspirator , and they collected sugar , tea , and damper for their feast . Darkness falls early in Australia , and the children decided to go to bed in good time , so that they should waken fresh in the morning .