XIX. On the Final Mile of the Course
XX. The Boy Who Won---Conclusion




CHAPTER I

THE FIVE NUT FORAGERS


The bright October sun was half-way down the western sky one Saturday
afternoon. Two-thirds of the Fall month had already gone, and the air
was becoming fairly crisp in the early mornings.

All around the forest trees were painted various shades of bright
scarlet, burnt umber brown and vivid gold by the practiced fingers
of that master artist, the Frost-King. Flocks of robins and blackbirds
were gathering rather late this year, preparatory to taking their
annual pilgrimage to the warm Southland. They flew overhead at times
in vast numbers, making a tremendous chatter.

A noisy bunch of crows cawed unceasingly amidst the treetops as a large,
lumbering old automobile passed along the country road, the same filled
with lively boys, and also a number of sacks stuffed to their utmost
capacity with what appeared to be black walnuts, shell-bark hickories,
butternuts, and even splendid large chestnuts. Apparently, the strange
and deadly blight that was attacking the chestnut groves all through
the East had not yet appeared in the highly favored region around the
town of Scranton, in which place the boys in question lived, and