“All right,” agreed Bert, seeing a chance for the smaller twins to play by themselves while he and Nan experimented with the swing.  “You get your boat, Freddie, and you get your doll, Flossie, and we’ll all go down to the brook and apple tree together.”

“Be careful, now!” called Mrs. Bobbsey, as the children ran off.

“We will,” they promised.  And really they meant to, but you know how it often is—­things happen that you can’t help.

“There’s the swing!” cried Harry, pointing to it dangling from the sturdy limb of the big apple tree.  “Daddy put it up for me last week.  I’m glad you came.  We can have lots of fun in it.”

“We want some swings!” cried Freddie.

“After a bit,” promised Nan.  “Sail your boat now, and give Rosamond a ride, Flossie, and you shall have some swings after that.”

The water was more of an attraction for the smaller twins than was the swing, and thus Nan, Bert and Harry had it to themselves.  While Flossie and Freddie played with the doll and the boat, the older children took turns seeing how high they could go.  Then they would let the “old cat die,” that is, stay in the swing, without trying to make it sway, until it came to a dead stop.

“I know what we can do!” cried Bert, when they were tired of swinging.

“What?” asked Harry.

“We can shinny up the rope like sailors.  I can go ’way up to the limb.”

Bert was a sturdy chap, and soon he was “shinnying,” or climbing, up the rope like a human monkey.  Then Harry did it, managing to reach the big limb, to which the rope was fastened, more quickly than had Bert.

“Now it’s my turn!” exclaimed Nan, when the two boys were on the ground again.

“Pooh!  Girls can’t climb ropes!” declared Harry.

“Yes, I can, too!  You watch!”

Nan was almost as strong as her brother.  She caught hold of the rope, and managed to scramble up, though it was hard work.

“You can’t do it!” laughed Harry, when, almost at the top, she paused for a moment.

“Yes, I can!  I can!  You just watch!”

Nan gave a wiggle, another scramble, and then, just as she managed to get one leg over the limb, she slipped.

“Oh!  Oh!” she screamed.  “I’m going to fall!”

But she did not fall.  Instead, one foot caught in a loop of the rope, and there poor Nan hung, half way over the limb, one leg dangling down, and her hands clutching the rope.  She could neither get up nor down!  She was caught on the limb of the tree!

CHAPTER X

DOWN A BIG HOLE

For a few seconds Bert and Harry were so surprised at what had happened to Nan that they could do nothing but stand and stare up at her.

As for Nan, she also was surprised at the suddenness of her tumble when she was almost perched safely astride the limb to which the rope of the swing was tied.  As she felt herself slipping she had clung with all her might, one hand and part of her arm over the branch, another hand grasping the rope, one leg partly up over the limb, and the other leg tangled in the rope.