you know, we ought to be making ready for it."

"So do I," said Pansy, looking very wise. "We want food, and we want wood
and all, doesn't we, Tom?"

"It won't be very, very cold in this island," said her brother, "because
we have the warm-water lake all round us. But perhaps the squirrels know
best."

So now began a very busy season indeed, for everybody went nut-gathering.

Tom opened up a squirrel's store, and a pretty noise the little creature
made about it. But he did not rob it; he only wanted to learn a lesson.

He noticed that the nuts it had collected were a little green on one
side, so these must be the best. Then he looked at the leaves and clay
that were packed over them, and thought he would get some just the same.

This going a-nutting in fairyland was real fine fun, and to have heard
their merry voices, talking and laughing and singing, with every now and
then Briton's great bass "Wowff!" and Veevee's shrill "Wiff!" no one
would have taken them for castaways and Crusoes.

Nutting made everyone so hungry too!

Rabbits were very plentiful on the island. The boys caught them by means
of snares made of a kind of tough creeper. And bonny Flossy caught as
many fish as would have kept a large family alive.

Tom seldom used his rifle, though he always carried it. The cartridges