Midnight
`` Suits me , '' said Cash . `` Now I 've made up my mind about going , I ca n't go too soon . '' `` You 're on . Midnight sees us started . '' Bud went out with ropes to catch and tie up the burros and their two saddle horses . And as he went , for the first time in two months he whistled ; a detail which Cash noted with a queer kind of smile . Midnight and the moon riding high in the purple bowl of sky sprinkled thick with stars ; with a little , warm wind stirring the parched weeds as they passed ; with the burros shuffling single file along the dim trail which was the short cut through the hills to the Bend , Ed taking the lead , with the camp kitchen wabbling lumpily on his back , Cora bringing up the rear with her skinny colt trying its best to keep up , and with no pack at all ; so they started on the long , long journey to the green country .