st as soft and
springy as a pile of hay in the meadow.

"Hurt yourself?" asked Bert.

"Not a bit--no. I'm all right," George answered.

"Oh dear!" cried Nan. "I thought sure you'd break your leg or arm or
something."

"So did I," said Nellie. "Are you sure you're all right, George?"

"Of course I am. I'll show you by climbing another tree." George who had
not even fallen down walked over toward the chestnut tree again.

"Well, pick out a good one to climb this time," Bert said, and George
did. He first shook the next little tree that grew near the big
chestnut, and made sure that it was not rotten, which was the trouble
with the first one he had gone up.

This time everything was all right. George climbed up, and stepped from
the small tree out on the branches of the one where the shiny, brown
nuts hung all ready to be shaken down. And when George shook the
branches of the chestnut tree, down came the nuts in a shower.

"Oh, what a lot!" cried Freddie, dancing about in glee.

"And one--one struck me right on the end of my nose!" laughed Flossie.
"A chestnut on my nose! Ho! Ho!"

"Well, it's a good thing it wasn't a cocoa-nut!" cried George. "Pick 'em
up now!"

This the children did. It was better than poking around among the leaves
for the nuts, as those George jarred down lay on top, and could easily
be seen.

The salt bags which the Bobbsey twins had brought with them, and the
bags Nellie and Charley carried, were soon filled with nuts. Nellie
picked up nuts for her brother, who was in the tree shaking them down,
and Bert said:

"We'll all give George a share of ours, as he can't pick up any while
he's in the tree."

"He can have half of mine," offered Freddie.

"Oh, no, little man, not as many as that," laughed George.

"I wish he'd come down pretty soon," murmured Flossie, after a bit.

"Why, are you tired of picking up nuts?" asked Nan, with a smile.

"No, not 'zactly," Flossie answered, "but I'm hungry, and----"

"Oh, I see! And you remember that George brought the lunch," said
Nellie. "Well, I guess we can all eat now. Come on down, George, and
we'll eat the picnic lunch."

"All right," her brother answered, and a little later he slid down the
small tree. The bags of nuts were laid aside, George being given a
share of the others, and then Nellie and Nan set out the lunch on top of
a flat stump, which was like a little table.

Mrs. Parks had put sandwiches, cake and apples in the box, an