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 some stories about the grey squirrel, which she had read in a book, which she got out of the school library—­how they sometimes crossed rivers on chips, and bits of bark, using their large bushy tails for sails.  Frank doubted this; but they both agreed to believe what is really the fact, that these animals sometimes migrate from one part of the country to another, in very large numbers.

[Illustration:  The yellow throat.]

When the children had half filled their baskets and bags, they sat down under the shade of a walnut tree, to eat some dinner, which they had brought along in one of the baskets.  During this frugal repast they were entertained with the song of a Yellow Throat, one of the very sweetest of all the wild birds of the forest.  He loves the thickest shades of the wood; and although the children were perfectly charmed with his music, he was so shy, that they could not get a single look at him.

After dinner, the children strolling further into the wood, came suddenly upon a party of their school fellows, who were in the woods for a day’s sport.  They were sitting under a tree, telling stories to each other.