nearly midnight
`` Thus , '' added Souwanas , `` the buzzard is the most despised of birds , because he is such an ugly fellow , with his featherless head and neck , and because his disagreeable odor taints the sweet air wherever he goes . '' A Moonlight Trip on the Lake -- The Legend of the Orphan Boy -- His Appeal to the Man in the Moon -- How He Conquered His Enemies . Moonlight nights in the Northland are often very beautiful . There in the summer time the gloaming continues until nearly midnight . Then nothing can be more glorious than to glide along amid the beautiful fir-clad rocky islands in a birch canoe over the still transparent waters . So large and luminous are the full moons of July and August that , with the west aglow and with the wondrous aurora flashing and blazing in the north , there is practically little night and no darkness at all . Nothing gave the children greater pleasure than to have permission to go with Mary and Kennedy in a large roomy birch canoe for a moonlight excursion during one of those warm , brilliant nights .