NUTTING TIME 301 



look so brown and shiny. But Tommy seems to 

 have an extra quick way of seeing them. He had 

 his basket nearly full, when Philip had only a few 

 in his pocket, and Kate Hood and Lucy and I had 

 just a handful besides the ones we had eaten. 



From the chestnut-tree we went to a big, old 

 hickory. On the ground under It there were more 

 nuts than all of us together could gather. We 

 could not eat them, for they were still green, and 

 Tommy said we must take them home and spread 

 them out to ripen on his woodshed roof, where 

 the sun would make them dry and warm. Already 

 he has nailed a board along the low side of this 

 roof to keep nuts from sliding off. 



It was so cold that my fingers stung, and we had 

 to run around the tree to keep warm. When we 

 were on the way home we went along the road that 

 in summer was always shady. Now most of the 

 leaves had fallen from the trees and lay in great 

 heaps in the road. We pushed them before us 

 with out feet, and both Philip and Tommy rolled 

 over and over in them. These leaves, though, are 

 clean and dry, and after they had shaken them- 

 selves, nobody would have known they had been 

 rolling so close to the ground. 



Along this road we passed two places where 

 there were odd little yellow flowers. They looked 

 like little bunches of strings holding tightly to 

 the bare twigs. I thought as all the flowers were 

 gone that perhaps Philip had cut these out of 



