Wood Pile

I have always been fascinated with wood piles. Once, when I was very young, my father got a huge pile of wood to feed the fireplace in the winter. The wood came from a local box factory. Most of the wood was unseasoned pine and burned very quickly with very little heat, but once and while there would be a knot in the wood and the oil from the knot would burn longer and hotter. I began to wonder how many pieces of wood were there in that huge pile. So, I got a pencil and began numbering the pieces. I don't remember the number but it was very large for a young child. For years afterward, I would find pieces of wood with numbers to remind me of my early curiosity about large numbers.