"I think this nice warm climate, just like May, makes anybody feel lazy and shiftless. Only think, Wal, at home, now, they are all covered up in snow, icicles hanging from the cattle's noses, and big roaring fires in the houses; and here I saw yesterday, right on the side of that little knoll, strawberries in blossom."
"I guess you're right, Ned," said Walter, stretching himself; "and that is just as our Joe is always saying—the frost puts the grit in."
"I guess so, for there don't seem to be much grit in the folks here; it seems as though the women did half the work."
"Let us ask the captain, Ned, for liberty to go and take a look at the country; then we can get information, and something to fill our beds with, besides having a good time—pleasure and profit, youngster."
"Where shall we sleep; out doors?"
"Yes; take a blanket (the weather is warm), just to keep the dew off."
"And we can carry provisions?"
"Yes, and fireworks."
"I should like that; it would be something like what we were going to do at Pleasant Cove, when uncle Isaac was hurt. I never was in the woods; always have been either at school or at sea."
"I don't think you'll find much woods, I can't see from the tree any that I should call woods. There seems to be as much about this oven as anywhere, and I suppose that was left to shelter and conceal the harbor for the smugglers."