* * * * *

The picture of Chestnutting in the first number of _Young People_
puts me in mind of our beechnutting parties. On the hill where my
papa's house stands there are a large number of beech-trees, and I
and my two little brothers have just had a fine frolic gathering
the queer three-sided little nuts. A beech forest is very beautiful
in autumn, when the golden leaves are fluttering down to the
ground, and the smooth, straight tree trunks tower upward like
silver-gray giants. When we gathered the nuts we spread some old
sheets and blankets under the tree, because the nuts are so very
small that otherwise we would never have been able to find them
among the heaps of dry leaves. They are nestled in russet-brown
burrs, something like chestnuts, and are so abundant that sometimes
we get a whole barrelful from one tree. We like them better than
chestnuts, and they keep all winter. My brothers and myself always
take a pocketful to school to eat with our luncheon. We often find
them in the spring among the heaps of last year's leaves, and after
they have lain under the snow all winter, they begin to sprout when
the first warm days come, and then they are very nice to eat.

I hope the _Young People_ will tell us of some good winter-evening
games, for we never know what to do between supper and bed-time. We
always learn our lessons for the next day in the afternoon.

SUSIE H. C.

WIGGLES.

We were scattered about our sitting-room table; the early tea was just
over, and a good long evening before us. (Us means papa, Bob, Mamie, and
Nelly. I am Nelly, and the eldest of the family--except papa, of
course.)

Papa was reading the evening paper--something about stocks, I suppose;
Bob had both elbows firmly planted within two inches of the
student-lamp, handy for upsetting in case he sneezed; Mamie was looking
as doleful as if she had lost her kitten; and I was gazing in the fire
and dreaming.

"Wish I had something to do," yawned Bob.

"So do I," said Mamie.

"Play checkers," I suggested.

"No; only two can play that," objected Mamie. "Papa, don't you know
something we can play?"

"Well," said papa, folding up his paper, "let me see. Bob, take yourself
out of the lamp. Play 'Recondite Forms.'"

"What's _recondite_?" growled Bob.

"Recondite means _hidden_, _concealed_, a