about twelve o'clock
`` Teach me to swim , '' he said to his father . `` Then I shall be able to play wherever I please . '' Father had been intending to give Johnnie Jones lessons in swimming and was only waiting for a warm , sunshiny day . Such a day came very soon , and , about twelve o'clock , he and Johnnie Jones , dressed in their bathing suits , went in the water . The little boy considered bathing great fun as long as he remained close to shore where the water was shallow but he did not like it so well when Father carried him out to the raft , where the water was so deep that it reached the shoulders of the grown people standing in it . `` Now , son , '' Mr. Jones said , `` I want you to stand on the raft , and jump when I count three . I will catch you in my arms , let you go down under the water , and bring you up again .