midday
Prairie Island rose with red and yellow and crisping leaves , like a royal tent amid a dead sea of flowers . The prairie grass was dry , though still mingled with a green undergrowth . Prairie chickens were everywhere , quails , and plover . At midday a billowy cloud of smoke began to wall the eastern horizon , and it slowly rolled forward , driven by the current of the air . `` O-o-oh ! '' said one of the scholars ! `` Look !