midnight
`` Hush , or you 'll wake my dad . '' `` I did n't believe we ever should start , '' said Chris , one morning at daybreak . `` But you were wrong , '' said Ned , `` and here 's good-bye to the old place . '' It was a month later , during which time the journey had been made to the nearest town , the stores and other necessaries purchased , and after preparations which had lasted till midnight , every one had declared that there was nothing else to be done , and all had lain down to sleep , Griggs included , he having decided to stay at the ranch for the last night , after bringing over his baggage and animals , and he had by a gruesome kind of choice elected to sleep in the long shed . `` Where the poor old adventurer was put , '' he said , `` and that will make me dream about him and perhaps have some happy thoughts about the best way to go . '' There were not many farewells to bid , for the settlers at the nearest plantations were scattered widely about the district , and all for the most part too much worried about their own disappointments to pay much heed to a few neighbours who were giving up and going to try their fortune elsewhere , and for the most part were ready to sneer at the restless folk who were going prospecting where , according to their own ideas , they were not likely to do half so well . Hence it was that as soon as it was light , and while Griggs with a hammer and spikes was nailing up the last windows and the door , for which pieces of board cut to the exact size lay ready , there was not a stranger there to see them off .