t as she and Bobby were going to bed that night Norma and Alice came
in, wrapped in their kimonos, each carrying a large box under her arm.

"What do you suppose?" asked Norma. "Good old Aunt Nancy heard we were
going after nuts for her cake and leaves for the hall, and she's made us
dozens of sandwiches. She said she did it because Mrs. Eustice reserved
one of the best seats for her at the play. Anyway, we'll be glad to have
them, shan't we? And, oh yes, Aunt Nancy says she'll make us a cake as
big as 'a black walnut tree' and two kinds of ice cream!"

"And she brought the sandwiches up to Norma and Alice because she
was determined they should have something for the picnic," thought
Betty after the girls had gone. "Talk about tact! Aunt Nancy has the
real thing."

The girls were all up early the next morning, and soon after breakfast
they were on their way to the woods. Many of those who were not of the
nutting party went to Edentown, some took canoes and went paddling,
others "puttered" around the school grounds, enjoying the beautiful
autumn weather and the luxury of a holiday.

Ada Nansen and her friends had elected to go to Edentown, and passed the
nutting party on the way. Betty took one glance into the bus and then
looked at Bobby. That young person promptly giggled.

"Did you see what I saw?" she asked.

"Poor Ada!" said Betty. "She does have troubles of her own!"

For of all the teachers, Miss Prettyman alone had been available as
chaperone, and to go to town under Miss Prettyman's eagle eye was
anything but an exciting experience. She was usually bent on "improving"
the minds of her charges, and she improved them with serene disregard of
the victims' tastes and interests. Betty and Bobby had seen her sitting
bolt upright in the bus, reading a thin volume of essays while Ada
scowled at the happy crowd tramping in the road.

The woods reached, they separated, some to gather branches of leaves and
others intent on filling their sacks with nuts. The boxes of lunch were
neatly piled under a tree, and sweaters were left with them, for it was
comfortably warm even in the shadiest spots.

"I don't believe we will have many more days like this," remarked Frances
Martin, her nearsighted eyes peering into a hollow tree stump. "Girls,
what have I found--a squirrel?"

"Plain owl," laughed Betty. "Isn't he cunning?"

They crowded around to admire the funny little creature, and then,
admonished by Bobby, whom Con