mother what a kind little girl she was, and how
much good she had done her, and Fanny and Frank both felt very happy.

As they went out of the door, Fanny bent her head down to smell of a
beautiful damask rose that was blooming on a bush near the house. They
walked along without seeing Jack, but he saw them. When they were half
way through the orchard, he came running up behind them, and reaching
out his hand, and touching Fanny, said:

"Won't you take this rose." She turned around, and saw that he had
picked for her the very rose that she had admired so much, and as she
took it from him, he whispered,

"I hope you don't think that I meant to hurt you this noon, when I
threw that stone--I wouldn't hurt you for the world. I only threw it
to make you look around."

Fanny answered him very pleasantly, and then he bade them good night,
and went back to his mother.

When the children reached home, they told their grandmother what a
happy time they had had, and Fanny said if she was a king, and another
king wanted to fight with her, she would send some eggs and tea, and
see if that wouldn't make them good, just like it made Jack Mills.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER VI.

THE NUTTING EXPEDITION.

One Saturday afternoon, Frank and his sister went into the woods,
provided with little baskets and bags, to gather walnuts. As they left
the village, they were regaled with a song from the Golden Crested
Wren, who was perched on the branch of an apple tree, and seemed to be
lamenting the rapid approach of winter.

[Illustration: THE GOLDEN CRESTED WREN.]

Scarcely had they got into the thick part of the woods, where the
walnuts were abundant, when they found that they were not the only nut
gatherers on the ground. The grey squirrels were on the alert,
scampering about upon the tall trees, where they were quite at
home. Their nests are in hollow trees, high up from the ground, and
here they delight to store up the sweet nuts, and acorns, for their
subsistence. Frank told Fanny some wonderful stories about these
squirrels, which he had heard from Farmer Baldwin: how some thousands
of them once set out in company, on an expedition from New York State,
to Vermont, and swam across the Hudson; and how they were so fatigued
and wet, after crossing the river, that many of those who escaped
drowning, were killed with clubs by the people, on the eastern shore
of the river.

[Illustration: THE GREY SQUIRREL.]

Fanny also knew s