It was a little squirrel clambering up a raspberry-bush, eating the raspberries as he went along. He would climb up by the little branches, and pull in the raspberries in succession, until he got to the topmost one, when the bush would bend over with his weight until it almost touched the log.
"Let us catch him," said Rollo, very eagerly; "do let us catch him; I will go and get our steeple trap."
Jonas did not seem to be so very much delighted as the boys were. He said he was certainly a cunning little fellow, but "what should we do with him if we should catch him?"
"O," said Rollo, "we would put him in a little cage. It would be so complete to have him in a cage! Do, Jonas, do."
"But you have not got any cage."
"We can get one," said James. "We can buy one with our half dollars."
"Well," said Jonas, "it will do no good to set the trap now, for he will be away before we could get back. But I will come down to-night, and set the trap, and perhaps we shall catch him, though I do not exactly like to do it."
"Why?" said the boys.
"O," replied Jonas, "he will not like to be shut up all night, in a dark box, and then be imprisoned in a cage. He had rather run about here, and gather raspberries. Besides, you would soon get tired of him if you had him in a cage."
"O no," said Rollo, "I should not get tired of him."
"Did you ever have any plaything that you were not tired of before long?"
"Why,--no," said Rollo; "but then a real live squirrel is a different thing. Besides, you know, if I get tired of him, I need not play with him then."
"No, but a real live thing must be fed every day, and _that_ you would find a great trouble. And then you would sometimes forget it, and the poor fellow would be half starved."
"O no," said Rollo; "I am sure I should not forget it."
"Did you remember your reading-lesson this morning?"
"Why,--no," said Rollo, looking a little confused. "But I am sure I should not forget to feed a squirrel if I had one."
"You don"t know as much as I thought you did," replied Jonas.
"Why?"
"I thought you knew more about yourself than to suppose you could be trusted to do any thing regularly every day. Why, you would not remember to wash your own face every morning, if your mother did not remind you.
The squirrel is almost as fit to take care of you in your wigwam, as you are to take care of him in a cage."
Rollo felt a little ashamed of his boasting, for he knew that what Jonas said was true. Jonas said, finally, "However, we will try to catch him; but I cannot promise that I shall let you keep him in a cage. It will be bad enough for him to be shut up all night in the box trap, but I can pay him for that the next day in corn."
So Jonas brought down the box trap that night. It was a long box, about as big as a cricket, with a tall, pointed back, which looked like a steeple; so Rollo called it the steeple trap. It was so made that if the squirrel should go in, and begin to nibble some corn, which they were going to put in there, it would make the cover come down and shut him in. They fixed the trap on the end of the log, and Jonas observed, as he sat on the log, that he could see the barn chamber window through a little opening among the trees. Of course he knew that from the barn chamber window he could see the trap, though it would be too far off to see it plain.
THE WAY TO LOSE A SQUIRREL
Early the next morning, James came over to learn whether they had caught the squirrel; and he and Rollo wanted Jonas to go down with them and see. Jonas said he could not go down then very well, but if he would go and ask his father to lend him his spy-gla.s.s, he could tell without going down.
Now Jonas had been a very faithful and obedient boy, ever since he came to live with Rollo"s father. He had some great faults when he first came, but he had cured himself of them, and he was now an excellent and trustworthy boy. It was a part of his business to take care of Rollo, and they always let him have what he asked for from the house, as they knew it was for some good purpose, and that it would be well taken care of. So when Rollo went in and asked for the spy-gla.s.s, and said that Jonas wanted it, they handed it down to him at once.
Jonas took the gla.s.s, and they all three went up into the barn chamber.
Jonas opened the gla.s.s, and held it up to his eye. The boys stood by looking on silently. At length, Jonas said,
"No, we have not caught him."
"How do you know?" said the boys.
"O, I can see the trap, and it is not sprung."
"Is not sprung?" said James, "what do you mean by _sprung_?"
"Shut. It is not shut. I can see it open, and of course the squirrel is not there."
"O, he may be in," said Rollo, "just nibbling the corn. Do let us go and see."
Jonas smiled, and said he could not go then, but he would look through the spy-gla.s.s again towards noon. He then gave the gla.s.s to Rollo, and it was carried back safely into the house.
James soon after went home, and Rollo sat down in the parlor to his reading. Afterwards he came out, and went to building cities in a sandy corner of the garden. He was making Rome,--for his father had told him that Rome was built on seven hills, and he liked to make the seven hills in the sand. He made a long channel for an aqueduct, and went into the house to get a dipper of water to fill his aqueduct, when he met James coming again. So they went in, and got the spy-gla.s.s, and asked Jonas to go up and look again.
Jonas adjusted the gla.s.s, held it up to his eye, and looked some time in silence, and then said,--
"Yes, it is sprung, I believe. Yes, it is certainly sprung."
"O, then we have caught him," said the boys, capering about. "Let us go and see."
"Perhaps we have caught him," said Jonas, "but it is not certain; sometimes the trap gets sprung accidentally. However, you may go and ask your father if he thinks it worth while for me to leave my work long enough to go down and see."
Rollo came back with the permission granted, and they all set off; Rollo and James running on eagerly before.
When they came to the trap, they found it shut. Jonas took it up, and tipped it one way and the other, and listened. He heard something moving in it, but did not know whether it was anything more than the corn cob.
Then he said he would open the trap a very little, and let Rollo peep in.
He did so. Rollo said it looked all dark; he could not see any thing.
Then Jonas opened it a little farther, and Rollo saw two little shining eyes, and presently a nose smelling along at the crack.
"Yes, here he is, here he is," said Rollo; "look at him, James, look at him;--see, see."
They all peeped at him, and then Jonas took the box under his arm, and they returned home.
Jonas told the boys he was not willing to keep the squirrel a prisoner very long, but he would try to contrive some way by which they might look at him. Now, there was, in the garret, a small fire-fender, which had been laid aside as old and useless. Jonas recollected this, and thought he could fix up a temporary cage with it. So he took a small box about as large as a raisin-box, which he found in the barn, and laid it down on its side, so as to turn the open side towards the trap, and then moved the trap close up to it. He then covered up all the rest of the open part of the box with shingles, and asked James and Rollo to hold them on. Then he carefully lifted up the cover of the trap, and made a rattling in the back part of it with the spindle. This drove the squirrel through out of the trap into the box.
When Jonas was sure that he was in, he took the old fender and slid it down very cautiously between the trap and the box, so as to cover the open part entirely, and make a sort of grated front, like a cage. Then he took the trap away, and there the little nut-cracker was, safely imprisoned, but yet fairly exposed to view.
That is, they _thought_ he was safely imprisoned; but he, little rogue, had no idea of submitting without giving his bolts and bars a try. At first, he crept along, with his tail curled over his back, in a corner, and looked at the strange faces which surrounded him. "Let us give him a little corn," said Rollo; "perhaps he is hungry;" and he was just slipping some kernels in between the wires of the fender, when Bunny sprang forward, and, with a jump and a squeeze, forced his slender body between two of the wires that were bent a little apart, leaped down upon the barn floor, ran along to the corner, up the post, and then crept leisurely along on a beam. Presently, he stopped, and looked down, as if considering what to do next.
The moment he escaped, the boys exclaimed, "O, catch him, catch him,"
and were going to run after him; but Jonas said that it would do no good, for they could not catch him again now, and had better stand still and see what he would do.