CHAPTER XIV
AFTER CHESTNUTS
Bert, Nan, Flossie and Freddie all came down to breakfast together.
"Well, well!" exclaimed Mother Bobbsey, smiling at the children. "Whatdoes this mean? Saturday morning, and you are all up as early as thoughit were a school day. You haven't looked at the wrong date on thecalendar; have you?"
"No, Mother," answered Freddie. "But we're going after chestnuts, and wemust get to the woods early."
"So the squirrels won't get all the nuts, Bert says," put in Nan.
"But we'll leave some for them; won't we?" asked Flossie. "I wouldn'twant the squirrels to go hungry."
"I guess there'll be enough for all of us," said Bert. "But there willbe a lot of fellows after the nuts this morning, on account of thefrost which has cracked open the prickly burrs, and let the nuts fallout. So if we want to get our share we'll have to start soon. Nan and Iwill look after Flossie and Freddie, Mother."
Mrs. Bobbsey thought for a moment.
"Yes, I guess it will be all right," she said. "The woods are safe, andthere are no snakes this time of year."
"I'm not afraid of snakes," exclaimed Freddie. "They only stick outtheir tongues at you."
"Some snakes bite," said Bert. "But, as mother says, there are none inthe woods now. When it gets cold snakes crawl inside hollow logs and goto sleep. So get ready to go after chestnuts!"
The Bobbsey twins finished their breakfast, and while Bert found someold salt bags which he put in his pocket to hold his chestnuts, Flossieand Freddie went out to the kitchen where Dinah was working.
"Dinah, where is the biggest basket you have?" asked Freddie.
"And I want the next biggest!" exclaimed Flossie.
"Mah goodness, honey lambs! What am all de meanin' ob big baskets?"asked the colored cook.
"We're going after chestnuts," explained Freddie, "and we want somethingto put them in. Here's just the basket I want," and he took a big one,that Dinah used sometimes when she went to market.
"I'll take this one," said Flossie, as she picked up one in which Sam,Dinah's husband, used to bring in kindling wood for the fire.
"Well, if yo' honey lambs brings dem baskets home full ob chestnuts yo'shore will hab a lot," laughed Dinah.
Flossie and Freddie, with their big baskets, went out in the side yardwhere Nan and Bert were waiting for them.
"Oh, look at what those children have!" Nan exclaimed. "You two surelydon't expect to fill those baskets with chestnuts; do you?" she asked,laughing.
"Of course we do," said Freddie, very seriously.
"No, no!" cried Bert. "Those baskets are too big. There aren't that manychestnuts in the woods, and, if there were, and you filled the basketsyou couldn't carry them home. Get smaller baskets, or do as Nan and Ido--take salt bags. They're easier to carry, and you can stuff them inyour pocket while you're going to the woods."
Flossie and Freddie still thought the big baskets would be best, buttheir mother told them to do as Bert said, and finally the four twinsstarted off down the road, each one carrying a cloth salt bag.
About a mile from the Bobbsey home was a patch of woodland, in whichwere a number of chestnut trees.
"Oh, look! There goes Charley Mason!" called Nan to Bert as they werewalking along the road. "I believe he's going chestnutting, too."
"It looks so," returned Bert. "I say, Charley!" he called, "are yougoing to the woods?"
"Yes," came the answer.
"Come along with us," cried Bert.
"All right," Charley answered. "I promised to call for Nellie Parks andher brother George, though."
"We'll stop and get them on our way past their house," said Nan, "andthen we'll all go on together."
"It will be a regular party; won't it?" cried Freddie.
"It surely will," laughed Nan.
"Only we haven't anything to eat," said Flossie.
"We can eat chestnuts," declared Freddie.
"Too many of them, raw, before they are boiled or roasted, aren't goodfor you," said Nan. "So be careful."
Charley Mason crossed the street to join the Bobbsey twins, and a littlelater they reached the house where Nellie Parks and her brother lived.These two were on the steps waiting.
"Oh, hello, Nan!" cried Nellie. "I didn't expect to see you. Charleysaid he'd stop for us, but I'm glad you did, too. The Bobbseys are goingwith us, Mother," Nellie called back to her mother who was looking outof a window.
"It's a regular chestnutting party," said Flossie.
"Only we haven't anything to eat," added Freddie, and all the otherslaughed.
"That's so!" exclaimed Nellie's brother George, who was older than anyof the others. "It isn't much of a party, even to go after chestnuts,unless you have something to eat. Wait a minute."
He hurried back into the house, and soon came out with a pasteboard box.
"What's in there?" asked his sister.
"Lunch for the chestnutting party," George answered. "Now you won't haveto worry, Flossie and Freddie."
"That's nice!" said the two little twins in a chorus.
Together the children walked down the street, past Mr. Bobbsey's lumberyard, and then they were out in a part of the city where there were veryfew houses. It was almost like the country. A little later they came tothe woods. The woods were on both sides of a broad road, and before thechildren reached the clump of trees they could see other boys and girlsscurrying around, poking in among the leaves on the ground to get thenuts which had fallen down when the frost cracked open the burrs.
"I hope they'll leave some for us," said Nellie Parks.
"Oh, I guess there will be plenty," returned her brother.
The Bobbsey twins and their friends hurried into the woods. Flossie andFreddie were the first to begin poking among the leaves with stickswhich they picked up.
"Have you found any nuts yet?" asked Freddie, after a minute or two.
"Oh yes, I've got one!" cried Flossie. "I've got two--three--a wholelot," and she showed some brown things in her fat little hand.
"Let's see," called Bert, and when Flossie held them out to him helaughed and said:
"Those aren't chestnuts. They are acorns. You have been looking under anoak tree, Flossie. You must look under a chestnut tree."
"Aren't these all chestnut trees?" asked Freddie.
"Oh, no," replied Bert, whose father had told him something of thedifferent kinds of trees, from which lumber is made. "There are oak,hickory, maple and elm trees in these woods. Here, I'll show you achestnut tree."
He pointed one out to the little twins, showing them how they couldalways tell it afterward by the leaves and bark.
"Look there for chestnuts and maybe you'll find some," said Bert.Flossie threw away the acorns, and she and Freddie began poking in amongthe leaves again, while the others went to different trees.
Freddie soon called:
"I've found some! I've found some!"
He hurried over to Bert with some shiny brown nuts in his hand. Each nuthad a little "tail" fastened to it.
"Yes, those are chestnuts," Bert said. "Now see whether you or Flossiewill fill a bag first."
"I've got a whole lot of nuts!" Flossie cried. "Oh, such a lot. Come onFreddie and--Ouch! Oh dear!" she suddenly cried.
"What is it?" asked Nan, quickly running over to her little sister. "Didyou hurt yourself?"
"Something stuck me in the fingers," Flossie answered, holding up herchubby hand.
"Maybe it's a snake," said Freddie.
"No, it's only chestnut burr stickers," said Nan. "I'll get them out foryou, Flossie. After this, open the burrs with a stick. Oh, look here!"she cried, as she glanced down at the ground. "Flossie _has_ found awhole lot of nuts in a pile!"
They all came over to look at Flossie's find. Surely enough, there werea number of the brown nuts in a little hollow in the ground.
"How did they get there?" asked Nellie.
"Some squirrel or chipmunk must have gathered them in a heap,
ready tocarry to its nest," said George. "Well, we'll just take them, as it willsave us the trouble of hunting for them. Put them in your bag, Flossie."
"But won't the squirrel be hungry?" asked the little girl.
"Well, don't take quite all of them. But there are lots of chestnutsthis Fall, and the squirrels can find and gather them more easily thanwe can. Take them, Flossie."
"I'll give Freddie some too," she said, and the two small Bobbsey twinsdivided most of the nuts between them.
By this time Nan, Bert and Nellie had also found some of the nuts underdifferent trees, though none were nicely piled up like those Flossiehappened upon. The nuts were down under the dried leaves, which hadfallen from the trees earlier in the season. By brushing the leaves toone side with a stick the nuts could be seen.
"This is too slow for me," said George Parks at last. "I want to picknuts up faster than this."
"How can you do it?" asked Charley Mason.
"By shaking some down from a tree. Let's find a tree that has a lot ofnuts on it, and shake it. Then the nuts will fall down, and they won'tget under the leaves. We can easily pick them up then."
"Good!" cried Bert Bobbsey. "We'll do it."
They searched through the woods until they found just the tree theywanted. Looking up they could see the burrs clinging to the branches.The frost had opened the burrs and the brown nuts could be seen, justready to fall.
"If there was a good wind," said George, "that would blow the nutsdown: but, as there isn't, we must shake the tree."
"It's too big to shake," remarked Nan. "Why, you never could shake thattree. I can't even reach around it."
"You can't shake it by standing on the ground and pushing against it,"said George. "I'll climb up among the branches and shake them. I'veoften done it."
"How are you going to climb such a big tree, when you can't get yourarms around it?" Bert demanded.
"I'll show you," answered George. "Do you see this little thin tree,growing close to the big chestnut?"
"Yes," Bert answered.
"Well, I'm going to climb up the little tree until I get high enough tostep from it into the branches of the big one," went on George. "Thenwe'll have plenty of nuts."
"And after we pick up all we want, can we eat?" asked Freddie.
There was a laugh at this.
"Hungry already; are you?" asked George. "Well, it does give one anappetite to come out on a crisp, cold day like this. Yes, after wegather up the nuts I'm going to shake down we'll see what mother put inthe box."
George started to climb up the small tree. This was easy for him to do,for he could put his hands and legs around it. Up and up he went, justas you boys have often climbed trees. He was about ten feet from theground when Bert suddenly saw the little tree beginning to bend over.
"Look out, George!" Bert called. "That tree is going to break with you!"
George looked down. And, just as he did so, there was a sharp, crackingsound and the tree broke and bent suddenly over. George fell toward theground. Nan, Flossie and Nellie were screaming.
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