Billy was hilarious when they climbed up the bank to a deep carpet of pine needles under the towering trees.
“Oh, Daddy, let’s stay here a long time and play!” he exclaimed.
“We can stay two whole hours before we start back. That’s a very long time.”
“I never saw such magnificent trees,” said Hazel. Her eyes turned here and there as if she could not take in enough of the beauty.
“And smell the fragrance of the sun on the pine needles,” said Kitty.
“A wise old Hindu told me once that man can gain renewed vitality in a pine grove quicker than anywhere else,” Mr. Carter told them.
“Then anybody ought to live forever here,” said Brad.
None of them had ever seen such a virgin forest. There was very little underbrush, just the towering pines rising from their thick carpet of brown needles, their green tops nodding against a blue sky, with a sweet sighing in the gentle breeze.
“This carpet of brown needles doesn’t look as though a human foot had been set here for half a century,” remarked Kitty.
“They’re protected from the sea winds by that island to the east,” said Mr. Carter. As he glanced that way his expression changed. “I do believe we’ve landed behind the island where they burn the hospital refuse.”