"Something pretty black and horrible would come out," Ned said sharply. "You can take my word for that. I hope you're not forgetting that Pandora was the first woman chosen by Zeus to bring complete ruin on the human race."
"She didn't quite succeed. And how can we know for sure, Ned? If what you say is true, if the Druids were really driven from Earth, we haven't done so well since. Wars and madness for two thousand years. Destruction and cruelty and death."
"All you have to do is prove we'd be better off if the Druids had stayed," Ned said.
"Darling, think. If people grew wiser all the time, if they never aged, would they want to murder one another?"
"Now see here—"
Cynthia smiled. "Think of having our own beautiful little home forever, in a fragrant woody patch, with shining kitchen utensils on the wall. Think of being spared all the miseries of old age and poverty and sickness and death.
"Think of having neighbors like the Sweeneys to grow young with, to grow wise and young with, day by splendid day until the end of time."
There was a long silence, and then Cynthia said: "I'd trust them, Ned. The Druids, I mean. I'd take the chance. What have we to lose that's really great, that can hold a candle to what the Sweeneys have?"
"You can go anywhere if you just remember how close you are to where you want to be!" Tommy Sweeney said, coming through the pilot-room wall in a blaze of light. He grinned. "I asked mom and dad to try real hard this time and here they are!"
All of the Sweeneys came into the pilot-room as Tommy spoke, their faces incredibly radiant.