midnight
The remoteness and wild stillness of it all seemed to take him back , in a way , to the wolf-centuries of his ancestors . It had been monstrous pleasant to roam the peaceful forest back of the Place . But there was a genuine thrill in exploring these all-but manless woods ; with their queer scents of wild things that seldom ventured close to the ordained haunts of men . It was exciting , to wake at midnight , beside the smoldering campfire , and to hear , above the industrious snoring , of the guide and his boy , the stealthy forest noises ; the pad-pad-pad of some wary prowler circling at long range the twinkling embers ; the crash of a far-off buck ; the lumbering of some bear down to the lake to drink . The almost moveless sharp air carried a myriad fascinating scents which human nostrils were too gross to register ; but which were acutely plain and understandable to the great dog . Best of all , in this outing , Lad 's two deities , the Mistress and the Master , were never busy at desk or piano , or too much tangled up with the society of silly outsiders , to be his comrades and playmates . True , sometimes they hurt his supersensitive feelings most distressingly , by calling to him : `` No , no , Laddie .