Gradually the trees became more tightly packed. Still Sabina bore straight ahead. Branches began clustering more and more densely around them until, following single file behind her, Matthew found himself so buried in the branches and greenery of close-growing pines that he had to hold his hands to his face for protection and could not see more than a foot or two in any direction. On they walked, Sabina fearlessly stomping through the heavy growth, he following blindly, until all at once they emerged into a grassy clearing.

Matthew glanced around in amazement.

“Was that dense enough for you?” laughed Sabina.

“I couldn’t tell where you were leading me! Yes, you could sure get lost in a place like that in no time—but what is this?”

“A clearing, a meadow.”

“But it’s… it’s so perfectly sheltered, so hidden away, but tucked right in the middle of the forest.”

How could either of the two young people have realized the prophetic import of the words that had just fallen from Matthew’s lips? Indeed, this idyllic time they now shared was as a season of leisure, reminiscent of a pace of life quickly vanishing in the gathering urgency of the twentieth century. This sheltered life would all too soon be shattered, and both would look back on those precious days with longing remembrances.

He continued to gaze about. Indeed, they stood at the edge of a circular clearing of only some forty or fifty feet across, bordered all the way around by dense-clustered pines so tight that they quite literally formed a wall around the meadow. Yet the meadow was so flat and clean that not a shrub or stump was to be seen—only lush green forest grass, thick and still wet from the morning’s dew.

“Our forests may not be so huge, but they have their own unusual qualities too. There are many such little meadows scattered all throughout them. But from the outside, you would never dream they were here because you cannot see through the thick growth that surrounds them.”

“It’s wonderful… so protected and quiet,” he said, slowly walking to the center of the grass, then stopping and turning in a complete circle as he took in every inch of the place. “You can see nothing but the grass under your feet, the wall of trees, and the blue of the sky straight above us. It’s a private little world! How did you find it?”

“I’ve played and ridden and walked in these woods since I was four or five,” she replied. “I know almost every inch of them.”

“Do you come here often?” asked Matthew.

“I have several favorite meadows such as this. They are favorite places for the deer, which we have in abundance.”

“It’s so absolutely isolated and peaceful—I just love it!”

“But come—there’s something else I want to show you.”