“I slid! I slid! Oh, I had a slide! I’m going to slide it again!” cried Freddie, jumping up and scrambling to the top of the hill again. “Come on, Flossie!”
“What makes him slide, Mother?” asked Flossie, as she saw her little brother go down the hill standing up, just as he and his small sister had often done on a snowy, icy slope.
“It’s the pine needles,” said Mrs. Bobbsey. “The ground is covered with the long, brown, smooth pine needles, and they make a slippery carpet. You may slide on them. If you fall you won’t be hurt.”
Soon the two smaller Bobbsey twins were having great fun sliding down the slippery pine-needle-covered hill, and Bert and Nan also took their turns.
But after two or three slides Bert found something on the ground that made him exclaim in delight and run to his mother to show her.
“Look!” he cried. “A chestnut! Are there chestnuts in these woods?”
“Yes, I did hear your father say something about them,” Mrs. Bobbsey replied.
“Oh, let’s hunt for some!” cried Nan.
“We’ll help!” added Flossie and Freddie, deserting the pine-needle slide for the joys of nutting.
But though the twins looked in all directions they found only a few scattered chestnuts.