Part 6 (1/2)

”Carol and Sherm going?”

The cookies had limbered up Ernest's tongue.

”Yep,” he answered, but suddenly remembered himself when his small sister began to giggle.

”Bet we're going hazel-nutting. Ernest, tell me.”

”Sha'n't tell you another thing and you might as well let up.”

”If I can get you off the sofa will you?”

The old haircloth sofa had been a famous battle ground between the children for the past two years, and many a frolic they had had on its slippery length. Ernest would entrench himself firmly in its depths and Chicken Little would tug at arms or legs or head indiscriminately in an effort to dislodge him. She not infrequently succeeded, for while he was much the stronger, the old sofa was so slippery it was difficult to cling to it.

Chicken Little did not wait for an answer now. She made a grab at his head which he defended vigorously. A sharp tussle ensued. She got his legs on the floor twice, but he still clung to the back with his hands.

”Huh, girls are no good!” he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed breathlessly.

Chicken Little's only reply was a dash at the clinging hands.

”No you don't!”

But he spoke too soon. Chicken Little pried one hand loose and throwing her weight on the other arm before he could recover his hold, rolled him triumphantly off on the floor.

”Anyway, I didn't promise to tell,” he crowed.

Sat.u.r.day morning was a testimonial to the weather man's good nature. It was glorious with a little frosty tang to the air and a belt of blue haze over the distant woods.

Sister Sue couldn't go, but Mrs. Morton generously permitted Alice to supply her place, and Frank Morton was to take them out to Duck Creek some three miles away and call for them again after office hours in the afternoon. The children were wild with excitement. Alice had fried chicken before breakfast, and there had been such hunting for bags and baskets that Frank said if they filled half of them, the horses wouldn't be able to drag the crowd and their plunder home.

The old carriage fairly bristled with heads and waving arms as they drove off. Chicken Little sat squeezed in with Katy, Sherm and Carol on the back seat uncomfortable but happy. Even timid Gertie chattered in her excitement.

The youngsters had dressed up especially for the occasion. Sherm was resplendent in a scarlet and white baseball cap that set off his red hair to advantage. Ernest took his straw hat because he said it shaded his eyes, and much reading had made his eyes sensitive. Katy and Gertie, just alike, were trim in blue gingham with smart little blue bows on their flying pig-tails. And Jane was brown, hair, eyes, and tanned skin as well as her dress, with a red coat like a frosted sumach leaf on top.

Carol felt quite grown up in an old hunting jacket of his father's. He had stuck two homemade arrows in his belt as a final touch.

Duck Creek was ablaze with autumn leaves and the hazel thickets were full of the tempting gray-brown cl.u.s.ters, though the nuts themselves when cracked seemed a trifle green.

”They don't taste like the hazel nuts you buy,” said Katy.

”'Cause they're not dry yet, Goosie.” This from Sherman.

”Bet you never picked a hazel nut before!” put in Ernest.

”Well, I've been hickory-nutting three times, and I guess you've never seen Niagara Falls and I have!” boasted Katy by way of keeping her self-respect.

The children worked busily all morning only stopping now and then to chase the squirrels who came scolding the intruders for taking their winter stores. By noon Alice declared they had more nuts than they could stow away in the old carriage, if they hoped to get in themselves.

Sherm and Gertie found a tempting persimmon tree and there were some wry-looking faces till Alice showed them how to find the fruit the frost had sweetened. After that the persimmons became immensely popular, and dresses and jackets alike were liberally stained with the mushy orange pulp to which samples of the picnic dinner were added later. They spread their feast out in the suns.h.i.+ne, using the sacks of nuts for seats, and waging war on intrusive ants and whole colonies of welcoming flies.

”I don't see what the Lord made so many flies for,” said Sherm disgustedly fis.h.i.+ng one daintily out of the b.u.t.ter by the tips of its wings.