As the easiest method, Mr. Clifford said they might as well fell a tree, for he had a right to do so.  He had brought an axe in his carriage; and Mr. Parlin, whose good right arm had never been injured in the war, soon brought a noble tree to the ground.

Then there was a scrambling to see which should break off the most shucks.  Dotty sat down on a log, half afraid there might be a snake lurking under it, and picked with all her might.

[Illustration:  GOING NUTTING.—­Page 131.]

“We don’t have any pecans at Deering’s Oaks,” she thought, “and nothing but shells at the Islands.  I only wish Prudy was here.  Prudy would think I had a little temper at Horace just now; I wonder if he did.  I will show him I am sorry; for he is a good boy, and a great deal more ‘style’ and polite than Percy.”

“What makes our little darling look so dismal?” said Cassy, taking a seat beside Dotty Dimple.

“O, I was thinking a great many things!  I’m so far off, Cassy!  When I think of that, I want to scream right out.  Prudy’s at home, and I’m here!  I don’t want to be so far off”.

“But only think, dear, how much you will have to tell when you get home; and in such a little while too.”

Dotty was instantly consoled, for a crowd of recollections rushed into her mind of wonderful events which had occurred since she parted from Prudy.  The “far off” feeling left her as she thought of the stories she should have to tell to admiring listeners one of these days.

When it was time for dinner, Mrs. Clifford spread a table-cloth on the ground, and covered it with the nice food she had brought.  It was a delightful entertainment.  Flyaway was so nearly wild with the new experience of eating in the woods, among the toads and squirrels, that she required constant watching to keep her within bounds.  She wanted to run after all the little creeping things she saw, and give them part of her dinner.  Horace gladly assumed the care of her.  He did not mean that his mother should regret having brought little Topknot.

CHAPTER X.

SURPRISES.

After a very happy day in the woods, the Cliffords started for home with as many nuts as they could carry.

Dotty said she had had a nice time; but for some reason she could not go to sleep that night.  There was a burning sensation in her right side, and she had a horrible fancy that a snake had bitten her.  She could not endure the thought of lying and listening to the strokes of the clock.

“I’ll go find my father,” thought she, with that “far-off” feeling at her heart again.

But which way to go?  She had not yet learned the plan of the house, but had no doubt she could find her father’s room.  She pattered about the chambers with her little bare feet, and at last waked Horace by overturning a chair near his bed.

“Why, who is there?  And what’s wanted?”