midnight
But now I thought of the evening camp fire , and hunting-stories , of the very dogs that licked my hand ; of St. Regis , and my loft bed , of snowshoes , and the blue northern river , longing for them as the young Mohawks said I should long . Tom betwixt two natures , the white man 's and the Indian 's , I flung a boat out into the water and started to go home faster than I had come away . The slowness of a boat 's progress , pushed by the silly motion of oars , which have not the nice discrimination of a paddle , impressed me as I put the miles behind . When the camp light shone through trees it must have been close to midnight , and my people had finished their celebration of the corn dance . An odor of sweet roasted ears dragged out of hot ashes reached the poor outsider . Even the dogs were too busy to nose me out . I slunk as close as I dared and drew myself up a tree , lying stretched with arms and legs around a limb .