“I’ll take this one,” said Flossie, as she picked up one in which Sam, Dinah’s husband, used to bring in kindling wood for the fire.

“Well, if yo’ honey lambs brings dem baskets home full ob chestnuts yo’ shore will hab a lot,” laughed Dinah.

Flossie and Freddie, with their big baskets, went out in the side yard where Nan and Bert were waiting for them.

“Oh, look at what those children have!” Nan exclaimed.  “You two surely don’t expect to fill those baskets with chestnuts; do you?” she asked, laughing.

“Of course we do,” said Freddie, very seriously.

“No, no!” cried Bert.  “Those baskets are too big.  There aren’t that many chestnuts in the woods, and, if there were, and you filled the baskets you couldn’t carry them home.  Get smaller baskets, or do as Nan and I do—­take salt bags.  They’re easier to carry, and you can stuff them in your pocket while you’re going to the woods.”

Flossie and Freddie still thought the big baskets would be best, but their mother told them to do as Bert said, and finally the four twins started off down the road, each one carrying a cloth salt bag.

About a mile from the Bobbsey home was a patch of woodland, in which were a number of chestnut trees.

“Oh, look!  There goes Charley Mason!” called Nan to Bert as they were walking along the road.  “I believe he’s going chestnutting, too.”

“It looks so,” returned Bert.  “I say, Charley!” he called, “are you going to the woods?”

“Yes,” came the answer.

“Come along with us,” cried Bert.

“All right,” Charley answered.  “I promised to call for Nellie Parks and her brother George, though.”

“We’ll stop and get them on our way past their house,” said Nan, “and then we’ll all go on together.”

“It will be a regular party; won’t it?” cried Freddie.

“It surely will,” laughed Nan.

“Only we haven’t anything to eat,” said Flossie.

“We can eat chestnuts,” declared Freddie.

“Too many of them, raw, before they are boiled or roasted, aren’t good for you,” said Nan.  “So be careful.”

Charley Mason crossed the street to join the Bobbsey twins, and a little later they reached the house where Nellie Parks and her brother lived.  These two were on the steps waiting.

“Oh, hello, Nan!” cried Nellie.  “I didn’t expect to see you.  Charley said he’d stop for us, but I’m glad you did, too.  The Bobbseys are going with us, Mother,” Nellie called back to her mother who was looking out of a window.

“It’s a regular chestnutting party,” said Flossie.

“Only we haven’t anything to eat,” added Freddie, and all the others laughed.

“That’s so!” exclaimed Nellie’s brother George, who was older than any of the others.  “It isn’t much of a party, even to go after chestnuts, unless you have something to eat.  Wait a minute.”

He hurried back into the house, and soon came out with a pasteboard box.