one o'clock
Now and then some tough-stemmed violet would `` hook-off '' a dozen blue heads before losing its own , and it became the temporary hero . At last the little queen asserted her power by saying , with a sudden flash in her dark blue eyes , that she `` would n't have any more fighting roosters . She did n't think it was nice . '' By one o'clock the queen had been crowned , the lunch had met the capacity of even the boys , and the children , circling round the throne , were singing : `` Oats , peas , beans , and barley grows , '' and kindred rhymes , their voices rising and falling with the breeze , the birds warbling an accompaniment . Webb and Leonard , at work in a field not far away , often paused to listen , the former never failing to catch Amy 's clear notes as she sat on a rock , the gentle power behind the throne , that had maintained peace and good-will among all the little fractious subjects . The day had grown almost sultry , and early in the afternoon there was a distant jar of thunder . Burt , who from a bed of dry leaves had been watching Amy , started up and saw that there was an ominous cloud in the west .