Should you children like to go to walk with me?” asked father. “It is a nice Sunday afternoon. I know something interesting to show you.”

“Oh, yes!” shouted Peter and Polly. “Where shall we go? Tell us fast!”

“Up the road on this side of the river,” said father. “You do not often walk there. Get your coats and your mittens. It is cold.”

“Oh,” said Peter, “if we have to wear mittens, then winter is here.”

“The snow has not come yet,” said Polly. “So the very best part of the winter is not here. I shall be glad of the snow, myself.”

“See how hard the ground is,” said father as they walked down the hill. “It is frozen. The sun cannot thaw it any longer.”

“There are no leaves left on the maple trees,” said Polly. “And there are no leaves left on the elm trees.”

“Let us look for signs of late fall and winter,” said father. “What can you see, Peter?”

“The birds have gone,” said Peter.

“Yes,” said father. “Just those are left that stay with us all winter. Now Polly.”

“I said about the leaves, father.”

“Very well. Peter, you tell next.”

“The squirrels have taken the nuts,” said Peter. “There are no more on the ground.”

“I know two boys who took some of those nuts,” father said. “Didn’t you and Tim have as many as you wished?”

“Oh, yes,” said Peter. “And the squirrels must have had all that they wished, too.”

“They need them in the winter,” said Polly. “And we do not. I know more signs. The goldenrod is not yellow anymore. And the other flowers have dried up.”

“The corn is cut,” said Peter. “It is standing up in bundles.”

“Yes,” father said. “Mother calls those bundles of corn dancing ladies. See, that field is full of them.”

“Some of the ladies are very fat,” said Peter. “And they do not dance very fast. I can think of something else. The pumpkins are all taken from the fields.”

“And I go to school,” said Polly.

“People have been making bonfires,” said Peter.

“People have been cutting boughs,” said Polly. “They have covered up plants with them. They have piled them around their houses, too. That is a good sign of winter.”

“The road is frozen,” said Peter. “And it is cold enough to wear mittens.”

“Thanksgiving is coming soon,” said Polly. “That is the best sign yet. It is coming this very month.”

“Goody, goody!” cried Peter. “I know that we are going to eat Thanksgiving dinner at grandmother’s.”

“I know it, too,” said Polly. “Father, what are you going to show us? Are we nearly there?”

“Very nearly, Polly. Do you see that big maple tree? It has no leaves now. But I know that it is a maple by the shape and by the bark. Can you tell that, too?”

“I see it,” said Polly. “But what is there interesting about it?”

“Come and look. The interesting thing is at this side. It is near the bottom of the tree. Find it, if you can.”

“It looks just like all the other maple trees,” said Peter. “Are they all interesting?”

“Yes,” said father. “But not in this way. What have you found, Polly?”

“A hole,” said Polly. “I will kneel down and see if there is anything in it.”

“You are getting very warm,” said father. “If you look hard, you will find the interesting thing.”

“I see it! Oh, I see it, father!” cried Polly. “There is a flat stone in this hole. It is a big one. How could it get in there?”

“The tree has grown right around it,” said father. “I do not know just how. But that stone has been in this tree ever since I can remember.

“The tree was not so large when I was a boy. We boys always used to call it ‘the tree with a stone in it.’”

“Do the other children know about it now, father? I never heard of it before. May we show them?”

“Of course you may show them,” said father. “They ought to see such an interesting thing.”

“This is as good as our dwarf kitten,” said Polly. “I wish that we could have it in a circus with her.”

“You can, if you have your circus up here,” said father.