midnight
Now he advanced , whistling cheerily , with a long stride and a swinging gait that should have carried him over the trail at the rate of four miles an hour ; and not until late in the afternoon did he permit himself to halt , and partake of the broiled venison . Then he ate every morsel , and , the meal finished , said aloud with a low laugh of perfect content : -- `` It 's lucky I did n't bring any more ; for I should eat it to a dead certainty , an ' then I would n't be in as good trim for walkin ' . Daddy always says that the less a fellow has in his stomach the easier he can get over the ground , and the poor old man never struck it truer . '' After this halt of fifteen minutes Dick pressed forward without more delay until he came upon the settlement , at what time he knew not , but to the best of his belief it was hardly more than an hour past midnight . There was no thought in his mind of spending any portion of the money for a bed . The earth offered such a resting-place as satisfied him ; and since the day his father departed from Willow Point in the hope of finding a location where he could earn a livelihood with but little labor , Dick had more often slept upon the ground than elsewhere . Now he threw himself down by the side of a storehouse , or shed , where he would be protected from the night wind ; and there was hardly more than time to compose himself for rest before his eyes were closed in slumber .