midnight
By the first of November the wonder had gone out of the life of the settlers . One by one the novelties and beauties of the plain had passed away or grown familiar . The plover and blackbird fell silent . The prairie-chicken 's piping cry ceased as the flocks grew toward maturity , and the lark and cricket alone possessed the russet plain , which seemed to snap and crackle in the midnight frost , and to wither away in the bright midday sun . Many of the squatters by this time had spent their last dollar , and there was little work for them to do . Each man , like his neighbor , was waiting to `` prove up . '' They had all lived on canned beans and crackers since March , and they now faced three months more of this fare .