a
chestnut tree."

He pointed one out to the little twins, showing them how they could
always tell it afterward by the leaves and bark.

"Look there for chestnuts and maybe you'll find some," said Bert.
Flossie threw away the acorns, and she and Freddie began poking in among
the leaves again, while the others went to different trees.

Freddie soon called:

"I've found some! I've found some!"

He hurried over to Bert with some shiny brown nuts in his hand. Each nut
had a little "tail" fastened to it.

"Yes, those are chestnuts," Bert said. "Now see whether you or Flossie
will fill a bag first."

"I've got a whole lot of nuts!" Flossie cried. "Oh, such a lot. Come on
Freddie and--Ouch! Oh dear!" she suddenly cried.

"What is it?" asked Nan, quickly running over to her little sister. "Did
you hurt yourself?"

"Something stuck me in the fingers," Flossie answered, holding up her
chubby hand.

"Maybe it's a snake," said Freddie.

"No, it's only chestnut burr stickers," said Nan. "I'll get them out for
you, Flossie. After this, open the burrs with a stick. Oh, look here!"
she cried, as she glanced down at the ground. "Flossie _has_ found a
whole lot of nuts in a pile!"

They all came over to look at Flossie's find. Surely enough, there were
a number of the brown nuts in a little hollow in the ground.

"How did they get there?" asked Nellie.

"Some squirrel or chipmunk must have gathered them in a heap, ready to
carry to its nest," said George. "Well, we'll just take them, as it will
save us the trouble of hunting for them. Put them in your bag, Flossie."

"But won't the squirrel be hungry?" asked the little girl.

"Well, don't take quite all of them. But there are lots of chestnuts
this Fall, and the squirrels can find and gather them more easily than
we can. Take them, Flossie."

"I'll give Freddie some too," she said, and the two small Bobbsey twins
divided most of the nuts between them.

By this time Nan, Bert and Nellie had also found some of the nuts under
different trees, though none were nicely piled up like those Flossie
happened upon. The nuts were down under the dried leaves, which had
fallen from the trees earlier in the season. By brushing the leaves to
one side with a stick the nuts could be seen.

"This is too slow for me," said George Parks at last. "I want to pick
nuts up faster than this."

"How can you do it?" asked Charley Mason.

"By shaking some down from a tree. Let's find a t