twelve o’clock
They then disputed for some time who should have it : at last , George scuffled away from her , and put it into the closet , and then , nodding his head at her , ran away , saying , he must go to school that moment . Betty Flood then ate her breakfast ; and we heard her say something about the nasty mice , but what we could not make out , as she muttered softly to herself . She then came to the trunk behind which we lay , and taking out of it a roll of new linen , sat down to needlework . At twelve o'clock her husband and son returned ; so moving her table out of the way , she made room for them at the fire , and , fetching the frying pan , dressed some rashers of the nice bacon we had before tasted in the cupboard . The boy , in the mean time , spread a cloth on the table , and placed the bread and cold pudding on it likewise : then , returning to the closet for their plates , he cried out , ` Lauk ! father , here is a nice hunch of plum-cake ; can you tell how it came ? ' ` Not I , indeed , Tom , ' replied his father ; ` I can tell no more than the carp at the bottom of the squire 's fish-pond . '