midnight
The engine was stopped that it also might be fed , and for an hour the _ Whatnot _ was allowed to drift with only Solon on deck . Then Reward was again set to work , and until ten o'clock the unique craft spun merrily down-stream . From that hour the engine was allowed to rest until morning ; and while they drifted , the crew divided the watches of the night between them , Cap'n Cod and Winn taking one , and Billy Brackett with Solon for company the other . At midnight Sabella had a lunch ready for the watch just coming below , as well as for the one about to turn out ; and then , wrapped warmly in a blanket , she sat for an hour on the upper deck with Cap'n Cod and Winn , fascinated by the novelty of drifting down the great river at night . The lights that twinkled here and there along the shores earlier in the evening had disappeared , and the whole world seemed asleep . The brooding stillness was only broken by the distant hooting of owls , or the musical complainings of the swift waters as they chafed impatiently against some snag , reef , or bar . They talked in hushed voices , and Sabella related how the man from whom her uncle purchased Winn 's canoe had told her that she reminded him of his own little daughter , who lived so far away that she did n't even know where her father was .