Gypsy pulled him out as well as she could between her spasms of
laughter.

"I don't see anythin' to laugh at," said Winnie, severely. "If you don't
stop laughin' I'll go way off into the woods and be a Injun and never
come home any more, and build me a house with a chimney to it, 'n' have
baked beans for supper 'n' lots of chestnots, and a gun and a pistol,
and I won't give _you_ any! Goin' to stop laughin'?"

It did not take long to pick up the nuts that the wind and the frost had
already strewn upon the ground, and everybody enjoyed it but Joy. She
pricked her unaccustomed fingers on the sharp burs, and didn't like the
nuts when she had tasted of them.

"They're not the kind of chestnuts we have in Boston," she said; "ours
are soft like potatoes."

"Oh dear, oh dear, she thought they _grew boiled_!" and there was a
great laugh. Joy colored, and did not relish it very much. Gypsy was too
busy pulling off her burs to notice this. Presently the ground was quite
cleared.

"Now we must climb," said Gypsy. Gypsy was always the leader in their
plays; always made all their plans. Sarah Rowe was her particular
friend, and thought everything Gypsy did about right, and seldom opposed
her. Delia never opposed anybody.

"Oh, I don't know how to climb," said Joy, shrinking and shocked.