CHAPTER XVIII.
It is easier to stay out than get out.
-- Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar.
The train was now exploring a beautiful hill country, and went twisting in and out through lovely little green valleys.

There were several varieties of gum trees; among them many giants.

Some of them were bodied and barked like the sycamore; some were of fantastic aspect, and reminded one of the quaint apple trees in Japanese pictures.

And there was one peculiarly beautiful tree whose name and breed I did not know.

The foliage seemed to consist of big bunches of pine-spines, the lower half of each bunch a rich brown or old-gold color, the upper half a most vivid and strenuous and shouting green.