“It’s too big to shake,” remarked Nan. “Why, you never could shake that tree. 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’ve often done it.”
“How are you going to climb such a big tree, when you can’t get your arms 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 to step from it into the branches of the big one,” went on George. “Then we’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 an appetite to come out on a crisp, cold day like this. Yes, after we gather up the nuts I’m going to shake down we’ll see what mother put in the 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, just as you boys have often climbed trees. He was about ten feet from the ground 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, cracking sound and the tree broke and bent suddenly over. George fell toward the ground. Nan, Flossie and Nellie were screaming.
CHAPTER XV
The Storm
“Look out there, George!”
“Jump over this way—away from the rocks!”
Bert and Charley called loudly to the boy who had climbed the little tree which broke with him. But George seemed to know what he was doing. As soon as he felt the tree going over he sprang out to one side, and came down, feet first, on a pile of leaves that were almost as soft and springy as a pile of hay in the meadow.
“Hurt yourself?” asked Bert.
“Not a bit—no. I’m all right,” George answered.
“Oh dear!” cried Nan. “I thought sure you’d break your leg or arm or something.”
“So did I,” said Nellie. “Are you sure you’re all right, George?”
“Of course I am. I’ll show you by climbing another tree.” George who had not even fallen down walked over toward the chestnut tree again.
“Well, pick out a good one to climb this time,” Bert said, and George did. He first shook the next little tree that grew near the big chestnut, and made sure that it was not rotten, which was the trouble with the first one he had gone up.
This time everything was all right. George climbed up, and stepped from the small tree out on the branches of the one where the shiny, brown nuts hung all ready to be shaken down. And when George shook the branches of the chestnut tree, down came the nuts in a shower.
“Oh, what a lot!” cried Freddie, dancing about in glee.
“And one—one struck me right on the end of my nose!” laughed Flossie. “A chestnut on my nose! Ho! Ho!”
“Well, it’s a good thing it wasn’t a cocoa-nut!” cried George. “Pick ’em up now!”
This the children did. It was better than poking around among the leaves for the nuts, as those George jarred down lay on top, and could easily be seen.
The salt bags which the Bobbsey twins had brought with them, and the bags Nellie and Charley carried, were soon filled with nuts. Nellie picked up nuts for her brother, who was in the tree shaking them down, and Bert said:
“We’ll all give George a share of ours, as he can’t pick up any while he’s in the tree.”
“He can have half of mine,” offered Freddie.
“Oh, no, little man, not as many as that,” laughed George.
“I wish he’d come down pretty soon,” murmured Flossie, after a bit.
“Why, are you tired of picking up nuts?” asked Nan, with a smile.
“No, not ‘zactly,” Flossie answered, “but I’m hungry, and—”
“Oh, I see! And you remember that George brought the lunch,” said Nellie. “Well, I guess we can all eat now. Come on down, George, and we’ll eat the picnic lunch.”
“All right,” her brother answered, and a little later he slid down the small tree. The bags of nuts were laid aside, George being given a share of the others, and then Nellie and Nan set out the lunch on top of a flat stump, which was like a little table.
Mrs. Parks had put sandwiches, cake and apples in the box, and there was enough for all. The children ate the lunch and had a good time, sitting around the stump-table. Then Flossie said:
“I’m thirsty! I want a drink!”
“Hum. Well, I’m afraid my mother didn’t put any drinking water in the box,” said George, looking carefully.
“Well, I can drink milk,” Flossie said.
“There’s no milk, either,” answered George, while the others laughed.
“There’s a spring of water over there,” said Charley Mason, pointing off through the trees. “We could get some water if we had a cup.”
“I can make a cup out of paper,” Bert said. “We learned how in school the other day.”
With some of the waxed paper which was in the lunch box Bert made a pretty good cup. Then when the thin skim of ice on top of the spring was broken, water could be dipped up, and every one had a nice drink. Flossie had two cupfuls, she was so thirsty.
They played tag and some other games under the trees after the lunch, and then, having gathered a few more nuts, they started back through the woods toward Lakeport.
As Flossie came near the little hollow in the ground where she had found the pile of nuts she cried out:
“Oh, look at the little squirrel! He’s trying to find the nuts I took. Oh, I’m so sorry I took them.”
“That isn’t a squirrel, it’s a chipmunk,” said Bert. “You can tell it’s a chipmunk by the stripes down its back. It does seem to be looking for the nuts though; eh, Charley?”
“Well, maybe he is,” said George. “Here, I’ll toss him a few. But there are lots more in the woods he can get, so he won’t starve.”
From his bag George threw a few nuts to the chipmunk. But the little fellow was not as tame as some squirrels to be seen in the city parks, for they will perch on your shoulder and eat nuts from your hand. The chipmunk, however, made a loud, chattering noise, with a sort of whistle in between and scampered up a tree like a flash of sunshine.
“Oh, he’s gone!” cried Flossie, who liked to watch the lively little chap.
“Yes; he doesn’t like company,” said Bert.
Shouting and laughing, the Bobbsey twins reached home with their chestnuts.
“My, you did get a lot!” said their mother, as she looked into the opened bags. “I never thought you would get so many.”
“There are many chestnuts this year,” Bert said. “Now we will have some fun roasting and boiling them tonight.”
They gathered about the fire after supper, and laid the chestnuts they wanted to roast on top of the stove. Nan and Flossie boiled theirs, but Bert and Freddie said they liked theirs best roasted.
All at once one of Freddie’s chestnuts burst with a loud pop, and the pieces flew all over the kitchen.
“Oh my!” cried the little fellow. “What made it do that? Was there a fire cracker in it?”
Before any one could answer him another nut burst, and a piece of it hit Dinah on the end of her shiny, black nose.
“What am dat all?” she cried. “Who am frowin’ t’ings at me? Was dat yo’, Freddie lamb?”
“No, Dinah. It was a chestnut—one of mine. But I don’t see what makes ’em pop that way, like corn.”
“Did you make any holes in your chestnuts, or cut a little slit in the shell?” asked Bert of his brother.
“No. Do you have to do that?”
“You do unless you want your chestnuts to burst. You see,” explained Bert, “there is water inside a chestnut, especially a new one. And when you put a nut on top of the hot stove the water is boiled and turned to steam, just as it is in the tea kettle. Then if the steam can’t find any way to get out, as it swells it just bursts the shell of the nut and sends the pieces flying. That’s what happened to yours, Freddie. I stuck a fork in each one of mine, and the little holes, made by the fork, let out the steam. Look here.”
Freddie went over to the stove to look at the nuts Bert was roasting. Surely enough, from the tiny holes in each one steam was puffing, almost as if from a little toy engine.
“When all the steam gets out and the nut dries, it begins to roast,” said Bert. “You must take yours off the stove and fix them that way, Freddie. I meant to tell you about it, but I forgot.”
“Bang!” went another nut, bursting, and Dinah held a pan up in front of her face.
“I don’t want t’ git shot no mo’!” she said.
Bert helped Freddie fix the chestnuts, putting little holes in them, and then there was no more trouble. They roasted nicely, and when they were cool the children peeled off the dried shells and ate the nuts. Nan and Flossie boiled theirs in salt water, for salt seems to give the chestnuts a better flavor. In fact, salt is good with almost all kinds of nuts.
The twins “traded” their chestnuts, Flossie and Nan giving some of their boiled ones for the roasted ones of Bert and Freddie.
“I think we are going to have a storm,” said Mr. Bobbsey as he came in toward bedtime, having gone to the store for Mrs. Bobbsey.
“What sort of storm?” asked Bert.
“A snow storm, I think. It feels that way, and the wind is rising. It’s going to blow hard.”
“I hope it doesn’t blow the house over,” said Freddie.
“I think you are safe,” answered his father, laughing.
When the Bobbsey twins went to bed that night they could hear the wind moaning and howling around the house. It gave them a “shivery” sort of feeling, and they were glad to cuddle down in their warm beds. Soon they were asleep.
But about the middle of the night Bert and Freddie, who slept in the same room, were awakened by a loud noise.
“What was it?” asked Freddie in a whisper.
“The wind banging a shutter, I guess,” Bert answered. “It woke me up. But go to sleep again, Freddie boy.”
Just then the banging noise sounded again.
“Yes, it was a shutter,” said Bert. “It has blown loose. I can hear daddy getting up to fasten it.”
“It certainly is going to be a hard storm,” Bert and Freddie heard their father say to their mother. “It’s beginning to snow.”
“Oh goodie!” whispered Freddie. “Did you hear that, Bert?”
“I certainly did.”
“We’ll have some fun to-morrow,” Freddie went on. “I can go coasting.”
“Yes, but go to sleep now,” Bert advised.
“I can’t, the wind makes so much noise,” Freddie answered.
The wind was certainly howling and moaning loudly around the corner of the house. Suddenly there was a big crash on the roof of the kitchen extension near the windows of the room where Freddie and Bert slept. Then, after the first crash, came another.
Something smashed through the glass in the window nearest Freddie’s bed and there was a thumping sound on the floor.
“Oh! oh!” cried Freddie throwing off the covers and jumping out. “The house is blowing down! The house is blowing down!”
CHAPTER XVI
The First Snow
There was noise enough from the howling wind to make almost any one believe the house really was tumbling down after the crash which seemed to have broken in the window of the boys’ room.
“What’s the matter in there, Bert?” called Mr. Bobbsey.
“The house is falling down!” cried Freddie. “I’m afraid, Daddy! I want to come in with you.”
“Well, come along, sonny,” called Mrs. Bobbsey.
Freddie ran out into the hall, where there was a dim light burning. Bert felt the cold wind blowing in on him through the broken window. He could also feel flakes of snow on his face.
“Something really is the matter in here, Dad!” he called. “I guess the house is all right, but our window is broken.”
“Did you hear that, Flossie?” asked Nan of her little sister, who was sleeping with her. But they were both awake now. “The wind was so strong that it blew in Bert’s window.”
“Oh, what a terrible storm,” whispered Flossie, covering her head with the clothes. “I don’t like it.”
By this time Bert had slipped on his bath robe and had gone out into the hall. His father was coming along and, having turned on the electric light in the room where the two boys slept, he saw what had happened.
Both large panes of glass in one window were broken. The shattered glass lay on the carpet and the snow was blowing in, for the white flakes were coming down fast now. And there were also a number of bricks on the floor.
“Oh! oh!” cried Freddie, who had come back with his father. “Some one threw bricks through our window. Was that Jack Frost?”
“I guess it was North Wind,” answered Mr. Bobbsey.
“What happened?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
“The wind blew the top of the chimney off,” replied her husband, “and some of the bricks crashed through Bert’s window. Not much damage done, but the wind and snow are coming in.”
“We can’t sleep in our room!” cried Freddie. “What are we going to do?”
“I’ll close the shutters and fasten a blanket over the window,” said Mr. Bobbsey. “That will keep out nearly all the snow. What little wind blows in will not hurt—fresh air in the bedroom is a good thing.”
Mr. Bobbsey closed the shutters, and tacked a blanket over the place where the glass was broken out of the window. Then, after he had taken away the bricks and swept up the broken glass so Bert and Freddie would not cut their feet on it, the boys went back to bed again.
It was some little time, though, before they could get to sleep, as the wind seemed to howl ever so much louder now that there was no glass in part of the window to keep out the sound.
“Is it snowing yet?” asked Freddie in a whisper of his brother, after they had been in bed for some time.
“I’ll look,” offered the older twin.
He slipped out of bed and to the window that had not been broken.
“Yes, it’s snowing hard,” he said.
“Good!” said Freddie. “We’ll have some fine sleighrides.”
It was quite cold in the boys’ room, with the glass out of the window, for the wind blew through the blanket and shutters. But no more snow came in and the north wind did not knock any more bricks off the chimney. It was only a few loose ones that had come down, anyhow. Most of the chimney was all right.
It was the first snow-storm of the season, and when the Bobbsey twins awakened in the morning the ground was white and the flakes were still falling.
“Oh, what good times we’ll have!” cried Nan.
“I’m glad I have my rubber boots!” said Flossie. “I can go wading in the deep drifts.”
“Not until the storm stops some,” said Mother Bobbsey.
It was Sunday, and the storm kept up all day so hard that the smaller Bobbsey twins could not go to Sunday school, though Nan and Bert managed to get there. And, as it was Sunday, the glass-man could not come to fix the broken window. But the shutters were kept closed, and with a blanket over the holes it was not so bad. Bert and Freddie liked to sleep in a cool room, and never had any heat turned on in their sleeping apartment. Their window was always open a little way, except on the very coldest nights.
The next day a man came to put the fallen bricks back on the chimney, and another man put new glass in the boys’ window, so the damage from the storm was soon mended. The storm was over now, though it was cold, and
the snow still covered the ground.
Then the Bobbsey twins had great sport. They got out their sleds and went coasting on the hill not far from their house, and when they were tired of this they played in the snow in their yard.
Flossie and Freddie rolled two big snow balls, so large that they were almost as big as the twins themselves, and finally the balls had in them so much snow that neither Freddie nor Flossie could push them around the yard.
“I’ll take them and make them into a snow man for you,” offered Bert. He put one snow ball on top of the other, Charley Mason helping him lift it, and then they made a third, smaller ball for the man’s head.
Pieces of coal made eyes and nose for the snow man, and Nan gave Bert a bit of her red hair ribbon which, when fastened on the snow face, made it look exactly as if the snow man was sticking out his tongue at you.
His arms were made of long rolls of snow, and one was crossed on his chest, holding a broom. An old hat of Mr. Bobbsey’s on top of the snow man’s head made him look quite natural.
“Now you can finish the rest of him,” said Bert to Flossie and Freddie. “Get some more pieces of coal, and put them down the front.”
“What for?” Flossie asked.
“They will look like buttons on his overcoat,” answered Bert.
“Oh, let’s do it!” cried Freddie.
They did, and when they had finished putting a row of pieces of coal down the front of the snow man, they looked just as Bert had said they would—like buttons on a coat.
“Now let’s make a little snow image, and he will be the snow man’s little boy,” said Freddie, after a bit.
“Oh, that will be nice!” cried Flossie.
The little twins rolled some smaller balls of snow, and, putting them together, as they had seen Bert do, they soon had a little snow boy, which stood beside the big snow man.
While the smaller Bobbsey twins were doing this Bert and Charley were making a snow fort in the back yard. And when it was finished some other boys came along and there was a snow battle. Bert and Charley, inside the fort, threw snowballs at the other boys outside. And every time they threw, Bert and Charley would dodge down behind the walls of the fort, so they were not hit very often.
The Bobbsey Twins Megapack Page 90