So they noisily called me a traitor and told me that accusing them was worse than stealing plums.

I said that it wasn't my intention to tell on them, but I would come and use my whip as soon as they touched the tree.

So they laughed and sneered at me and said that they were neither afraid of me nor of my whip.

As soon as our lessons were done at twelve o'clock, they ran to the garden and, getting the whip I had hidden in the hallway, I ran after them.

Edwin was already half way up the tree and Eugene was just beginning to climb it.