midnight
Hardy souls , far in advance of the coming railroad , had built here and there a log cabin and were hard at it clearing and plowing and getting the land ready for crops . Four or five such lone ranches they passed , tarrying overnight at one where they found a broad-bosomed woman with a brood of tow-headed children . Her husband was out after supplies -- a week 's journey . She kept Hazel from her bed till after midnight , talking . They had been there over winter , and Hazel Wagstaff was the first white woman she had bespoken in seven months . There were other women in the valley farther along ; but fifty or sixty miles leaves scant opportunity for visiting when there is so much work to be done ere wild acres will feed hungry mouths . At length they fared into Hazleton , which is the hub of a vast area over which men pursue gold and furs .