midnight
Each day the sun climbed higher and higher , and the wind lost its sting . The surface of the snow softened by day , and high-piled white drifts settled slowly into soggy masses of saturated , gray slush . Bill figured that he had nearly fifteen million feet down when he called off his sawyers and ordered the clean-up . The nights remained cold , freezing the surface of the sodden snow into a crust of excellent footing , so that the day 's work began at midnight and continued until the crust softened under the rays of the morning sun . The men laughed and sang and talked of the drive , and of the waterfront dives of cities , whose calk-pocked floors spoke the shame of the men of the logs . But most of all they talked of the wedding . For as they sat at the supper-table on the day the last tree fell , the boss entered , accompanied by the girl .