"What dial's that?" asked Joyce. And Martin looked about for a Dandelion Clock, and having found one blew it all away with a single puff and cried, "One o'clock and dinner-time!"
Then Jennifer got a second puff and blew on it so carefully that she was able to say, "Seven o'clock and supper-time!"
And then all the girls hastened to get clocks of their own, and make their favorite time o'day.
"When I can't make it come right," confided little Joan to Martin, "I pull them off and say six o'clock in the morning."
"It's a very good way," agreed Martin, "and six o'clock in the morning is a very good hour, except for lazy lie-abeds. Isn't it?"
"Nancy always looked for me at six of a summer morning," said little Joan.
"Yes," said Martin, "milkmaids must always turn their cows in before the dew's dry. And carters their horses."
"Sometimes they get so mixed in the lane," said Joan.
"I am sure they do," said Martin. "How glad your cows will be to see you all again."
"Are you certain we shall be out of the orchard to-morrow, Master Pippin?" asked Jane.