midnight
`` Serves Dan right if she did , for he never gives any other fellow half a chance with the old ladies . The rest of us have to be content with the young ones . '' The soft dusk of the night had fallen over the northern lands , and the pale stars had gleamed for hours on the reflecting waves of mountain streams . It was late -- near midnight , for the waning sickle of the moon was slipping from its dark cover in the east and hanging like a jewel of gold just above the black crown of the pines . Breaths from the heights sifted down through the vast woods , carrying sometimes the dreary twitter of a bird disturbed , or the mellow call of insects singing to each other of the summer night . All sounds of the wilderness were as echoes of rest and utter content . And in the camp of the Twin Springs , shadows moved sometimes with a silence that was scarce a discord in the wood songs of repose .