plums, now let 's see you do it,' answered Nelly,
rather crossly, for she had bitten the green plum, and it puckered her
mouth.

"'Wait a minute, and you will see me do it,' cried I, as a new thought
came into my naughty head.

"'What are you taking your shoes and socks off for? You can't climb the
tree, Fan.'" 'Don't ask questions, but be ready to pick 'em up when they
fall, Miss Lazybones.' "With this mysterious speech I pattered into
the house bare-footed and full of my plan. Up stairs I went to a window
opening on the shed roof. Out I got, and creeping carefully along till
I came near the tree, I stood up, and suddenly crowed like the little
rooster. Nelly looked up, and stared, and laughed, and clapped her hands
when she saw what I was going to do.

"'I 'm afraid you 'll slip and get hurt.'" 'Don't care if I do; I 'll
have those plums if I break my neck doing it,' and half sliding, half
walking I went down the sloping roof, till the boughs of the tree were
within my reach.

"Hurrah!" cried Nelly, dancing down below, as my first shake sent a
dozen plums rattling round her.

"'Hurrah!" cried I, letting go one branch and trying to reach another.
But as I did so my foot slipped, I tried to catch something to hold by,
but found nothing, and with a cry, down I fell, like a very big plum on
the grass below.

"Fortunately the shed was low, the grass was thick and the tree broke my
fall, but I got a bad bump and a terrible shaking. Nelly thought I was
killed, and began to cry with her mouth full. But I picked myself up in
a minute, for I was used to such tumbles; and did n't mind the pain half
as much as the loss of the plums.

"'Hush! Debby will hear and spoil all the fun. I said I 'd get 'em and I
have. See what lots have come down with me.'" So there had, for my fall
shook the tree almost as much as it did me, and the green and purple
fruit lay all about us.

"By the time the bump on my forehead had swelled as big as a nut, our
aprons were half full, and we sat down to enjoy ourselves. But we did
n't. O dear, no! for many of the plums were not ripe, some were hurt by
the birds, some crushed in falling, and many as hard as stones. Nelly
got stung by a wasp, my head began to ache, and we sat looking at one
another rather dismally, when Nelly had a bright idea.

"'Let 's cook 'em, then they 'll be good, and we can put some away in
our little pails for to-morrow.'" 'That will be splendid! There 's a
fire in the