They tramped rather silently
at first, and then, as the tense mood wore off, their tongues were
loosened and they chattered like magpies.
"Here's a tree!" shouted Louise and Frances, who were in the lead.
When they had picked all the nuts on the ground, Bobby essayed to climb
the tree. She made rather sad work of the effort, for a shag-bark
hickory is not the easiest tree in the world to climb, and after she had
torn her skirt in two places and mended it with safety pins, she gave up
the attempt.
"Let's walk further," she suggested. "We'll mark our trail as we go like
the Indians."
This idea caught the fancy of the girls, and they marked an elaborate
trail, building little mounds at every turn and leaving odd arrangements
of stones to mark their passing.
"Come on, I'll race you," shouted Bobby suddenly. "I feel just like
exercising."
Betty wondered what she called the scramble through the woods, but she,
too, was ready for a run. They set off pellmell, laughing and shouting.
"Look out!" shrieked Betty, stopping so suddenly that Libbie and Louise
fell against her. "Look! I almost ran right into it!"
She pointed ahead to where the ground fell away abruptly.
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