"The sparkling frost, when they first go out,
Lies thick upon all around;
And earth and grass, as they onward pass,
Give a pleasant crackling sound.
"Oh, there is a heap of chestnuts, see!'
Cried the youngest of the train;
For they came to a stone where the squirrel had thrown
What he meant to pick up again.
"And two bright eyes, from the tree o'er head,
Look'd down at the open bag
Where the nuts went in and so to begin,
Almost made his courage flag.
"Away on the hill, outside the wood,
Three giant trees there stand:
And the chestnuts bright, that hang in sight,
Are eyed by the youthful band.
"And one of their number climbs the tree,
And passes from bough to bough
And the children run for with pelting fun
The nuts fall thickly now.
"Some of the burrs are still shut tight
Some open with chestnuts three,
And some nuts fall with no burrs at all
Smooth, shiny, as nuts should be.
"Oh, who can tell what fun it was
To see the prickly shower:
To feel what a whack on head or back
Was within a chestnut's power!
"To run beneath the shaking tree,
And then to scamper away;
And with laughing shout to dance about
The grass where the chestnuts lay.
"With flowing dresses, and blowing hair,
And eyes that no shadow knew,
Like the growing light of a morning bright
The dawn of the summer blue!
"The work was ended the trees were stripped
The children were 'tired of play:'
And they forgot (but the squirrel did not)
The wrong they had done that day."