carrying a big fat melon of the late variety that looked ripe and tempting.
"Oh, say, isn't this glorious!" cried Sammy, as they all sat down under a tree by the roadside, and Dick got out his pocket-knife.
Jed and his friends sat on a fallen tree about fifty yards distant. They watched the boys enviously, while not getting slivers out of their hands and the creases out of their clothes.
"Come on, Burr, and all of you," cried Dick, in a pleasant, open-hearted way.
Jed and his companions skulked up to the spot, rather shame-faced. No one referred to their long roost in the appletrees. Sammy, however, had to laugh outright when it came out that they had left their lunches on the ground, and the dogs had eaten them up.
Bob and his friends divided what they had in their pockets with Jed's party. This and a watermelon made the deserters feel a good deal better.
All hands went to the North Woods, and put in two hours gathering walnuts. About three o'clock Dick and Bob started off for the Hazelton farm, leaving their comrades in the woods.
Dick got a team and a light wagon at the farm. First, he and Bob drove over to the flat and loaded in the bags of hickory nuts.
Then they drove around into the North Woods, and the walnuts were safely stowed. The boys crowded into the wagon on top of them.
"Say, this feels good," said Tom, as he rested his tired limbs.
"Never had such a grand day in my life!" cried Sammy.
The team took the boys around to their homes. Even Jed Burr voted that they had enjoyed a fine occasion.
