nearly midnight
Winston laughed . `` Sit down and talk , '' he said . `` One is n't always in his usual form , and there are folks who get famous too easily . '' They talked until nearly midnight , sitting close to the stove , while a doleful wind that moaned without drove the dust of snow pattering against the windows , and the shadows grew darker in the corners of the great log-walled room each time the icy draughts set the lamp flickering . Then the officer , rising , expressed the feelings of his guest as he said , `` It 's a forsaken country , and I 'm thankful one can sleep and forget it . '' He had , however , an honorable calling , and a welcome from friend and kinsman awaiting him when he went East again , to revel in the life of the cities , but the man who followed him silently to the sleeping-room had nothing but a half-instinctive assurance that the future could not well be harder or more lonely than the past had been . Still , farmer Winston was a man of courage with a quiet belief in himself , and in ten minutes he was fast asleep .