midnight
It had taken him unawares , stealing like a gray mist of light over the tops of the Vermont hills , lifting their ridges faintly out of night , like the ghosts of so many Titans . Among the Adirondacks one high peak caught the first glimmer of advancing day , while all the lower range remained a gigantic silhouette beneath the perceptibly paling stars . Over Canada the veil was still down , but he fancied he could detect a thinner texture to the darkness . Then , as he passed a wooded headland , came a sleepy twitter , from some little pink and yellow bill barely withdrawn from its enfolding wing -- to be followed by another , and another , and another , till both shores were aquiver with that plaintive chirrup , half threnody for the flying darkness , half welcome to the sun , like the praise of a choir of children roused to sing midnight matins , but still dreaming . Ford 's dip was softer now , as though he feared to disturb that vibrant drowsiness ; but when , later , capes and coves began to define themselves through the gray gloaming , and , later still , a shimmer of saffron appeared above the eastern summits , he knew it was time to think of a refuge from the daylight . The saffron became fire ; the fire lit up a heaven of chrysoprase and rose . Where the lake had been as a metal mirror for the stars , it rippled and dimpled and gleamed with the tints of mother-of-pearl .