While Flossie and Freddie were having such fun at the real sawmill, and
before Freddie had, by accident, upset Flossie down the pine needle bank
into the brook above the mill dam, Bert and Nan were trudging along
through the woods on their way to the chestnut grove, about which Jim
Denton had told them.
"Aren't you glad we came to Cedar Camp, Bert?" asked Nan.
"I sure am!" answered her brother. "It's like having two vacations in
the same year. We had fun out West, and we'll have fun here."
"We can have a party when we get back, and roast the chestnuts,"
suggested Nan.
"I hope we get a lot," went on Bert, kicking aside the pine cones and
dried leaves. "We'll want some for Flossie and Freddie."
"Yes, and for daddy and mother," added Nan. "They like chestnuts, too."
The day had started as a bright and sunny one, though it was colder up
here in the North Woods than down in Lakeport. But Bert and Nan were
warmly dressed, and they were so accustomed to being out of doors that a
little cold did not bother them.
But though the sun had shone brightly when they had started on their
nutting trip, they had not gone far before the sky began to be overcast
with clouds. Not that Bert and Nan minded this. They were too busy
looking for chestnut trees and thinking what a good time they were
having to mind the weather.
For it was fun just to walk through the woods and breathe the sweet,
spicy odors of the pine and cedar trees. The ground underfoot was
thickly carpeted with dried leaves and pine needles, so that the
footfalls of the older Bobbsey twins made scarcely any sound as they
walked along.
It was so quiet that the children heard many sounds in the forest which
was all about them. They were following a path that led along Pine
Brook, and Jim Denton had said that if they kept to this path they would
come after about a mile's walk to a grove of chestnut trees.
"And if you don't find any nuts there, keep on a little farther," the
lumberman had said. "The squirrels and chipmunks can't have taken all of
them."
So interested were Bert and Nan that they paid little attention to the
weather. In fact, they could scarcely see the sky at times. This was
because the cedar and other trees were so thick overhead.
As they were going along the path where the pine needles made a thicker
carpet than usual, Bert, who was in the lead, came to a sudden stop.
"What's the matter?" asked Nan, shifting from one hand to the other the
bundle of lunch she carried.
"I thought I heard something," said Bert in a low voice.
A moment later there was no doubt of this, for both he and his sister
heard a grunting noise in the bushes, and then they heard the rustle of
dried leaves and the snapping of twigs.
"Oh, Bert! Maybe it's a bear!" cried Nan, clinging to her brother.
"A--a bear!" gasped Bert. He hardly knew what else to say.
"Oh, look!" gasped Nan. She pointed toward a bush, and, coming out from
under it, was a little animal, somewhat larger than a rabbit, but with
different kind of fur, small ears, and with a tail that seemed to have
rings of fur around it.
"It's a little bear!" gasped Nan. "Oh, Bert! we'd better run back to
camp before the big bear comes."
Bert looked at the furry animal, whose bright eyes peered at the Bobbsey
twins, and then Nan's brother laughed.
"I know what it is!" he said. "It's a raccoon. I can tell by the rings
on its tail."
"A raccoon!" gasped Nan. "Will it--will it hurt us?"
"No," answered Bert, and this was borne out a moment later, for with a
snorting grunt the raccoon turned and scurried away into the bushes.
"There!" said Bert. "He's gone!"
"I'm glad of it," returned Nan, with a sigh of relief. "I don't like
raccoons when I'm chestnutting."
"They're nice!" declared Bert. "I wish I could see him again."
But the raccoon did not show itself, probably being just as much
frightened at having seen the Bobbsey twins as Nan was at getting a
glimpse of the ring-tailed creature.
Over this little fright, the Bobbsey twins walked on again, and soon
they had reached the grove that the foreman had told them about.
"This must be the place--there are chestnut trees here," said Bert. His
father had taught him how to tell the more common sorts of trees by
means of their leaves and bark.
"Well, let's look for chestnuts," proposed Nan.
With sticks the children began poking among the leaves, turning them
over, for the little brown nuts, when the frost has popped them out of
their prickly shells, have a great trick of hiding under the leaves.
"Oh, I've found one!" cried Nan. "Two--three! Oh, Bert, I've found
three!"
She held out her hand with three shining brown nuts in it.
"Ought to be a lot more than that here," said Bert, still poking away
among the leaves. "There's lots of trees and fresh burrs here. I guess
the squirrels and chipmunks have been here too."
"Oh, I've found two more! I'm beating you!" laughed Nan, as she picked
up more nuts.
"I've found one, anyhow, and it's a big one," cried Bert, as he picked
up his first. "But there aren't as many as I thought there would be."
The children continued to pick up a few nuts at a time, but there were
not so many scattered over the ground as the lumberman had led them to
expect.
"There's the chap who's been taking the nuts!" suddenly cried Bert.
"Who?" asked Nan, looking up after stooping to pick two of the brown
prizes from a bursted burr.
"That squirrel!" cried Bert, pointing to one of the big-tailed gray
fellows, sitting on a tree and looking down at the Bobbsey twins. "He
and the chipmunks can soon clean up a chestnut grove."
Just then a red squirrel, one of the most noisy chatterers of the woods,
caught sight of the children and began to "scold" them. Oh, what a
racket he made, his thin tail jerking from side to side as he gave his
shrill cries! Bert and Nan laughed at him.
"He's had his share of nuts," said Bert, "and he's mad 'cause we're
taking some, I guess. But we aren't getting as many as we'd like."
"No," agreed Nan. "Maybe if we go on a little farther we'll find more."
"We'll try," agreed Bert and, almost before they knew it, the two
children had wandered some distance from the place where Mr. Denton had
told them to stop.
"Oh, look! There's a pile of nuts here!" cried Nan, reaching another
grove of chestnut trees. "The squirrels haven't been here yet! Goodie!"
This was evident, for it did not take long, poking among the dried
leaves, to show that the chestnuts were quite thick on the ground. In a
short time Bert and Nan had half filled the salt bags they had brought
with them to hold their spoils of the woods.
"Oh, this is great!" cried Nan, straightening up after four or five
minutes of picking nuts from the ground.
"A little more of this and we'll have enough," said her brother.
But just then Nan looked up at the sky, which she could see through the
overhead trees, and what she saw in the heavens made her exclaim:
"Bert, I believe it's going to storm! Look at the clouds! And it's
getting ever so much colder, too!"
Indeed there was a chill in the air that had not been present when the
Bobbsey twins started out that morning.
"Well, we'll go back in a few minutes," Bert suggested. But a little
while after he had said this, there was a quick darkening of the air,
the wind began to blow, and, so suddenly as to startle the children,
they found themselves enveloped in such a blinding, driving squall of
snow that they could not see ten feet on either side!
"Oh, Bert!" cried Nan. "It's a blizzard! Oh, shall we ever get back to
Cedar Camp and to mother?"