three o'clock before
They had been gone only ten minutes . Anne , who did not like Peter , had decided not to ask him to stay , but Peter had calmly taken his usual place , and had annoyed Anne with his familiar questioning of Hong as to the amount of butter needed in batter bread . It was a happy meal for everyone , and after it they had attacked the rose bush again , with aching muscles now , and in the first real summer heat . It was three o'clock before , with a great crackling , and the scream of a twisted branch , and a general panting and heaving on the part of the workers , at last the feathery mass had risen a foot -- two feet -- into the air , had stood tottering like a wall of bloom , and finally , with a downward rush , had settled to its old place on the roof . Hong was pressed into service now , and with Martin , was on the roof , grappling with a rope , shouting directions . A shower of tiny blossoms and torn leaves covered the steps of the office-porch , the garden beds were trampled deep , the seven labourers breathless and exhausted . But the rose vine was in place !