THE WAY TO LOSE A SQUIRREL
Early the next morning, James came over to learn whether they had caughtthe squirrel; and he and Rollo wanted Jonas to go down with them andsee. Jonas said he could not go down then very well, but if he would goand ask his father to lend him his spy-glass, he could tell withoutgoing down.
Now Jonas had been a very faithful and obedient boy, ever since he cameto live with Rollo's father. He had some great faults when he firstcame, but he had cured himself of them, and he was now an excellent andtrustworthy 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 theyknew it was for some good purpose, and that it would be well taken careof. So when Rollo went in and asked for the spy-glass, and said thatJonas wanted it, they handed it down to him at once.
Jonas took the glass, and they all three went up into the barn chamber.
Jonas opened the glass, and held it up to his eye. The boys stood bylooking 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 isnot there."
"O, he may be in," said Rollo, "just nibbling the corn. Do let us go andsee."
Jonas smiled, and said he could not go then, but he would look throughthe spy-glass again towards noon. He then gave the glass to Rollo, andit was carried back safely into the house.
James soon after went home, and Rollo sat down in the parlor to hisreading. Afterwards he came out, and went to building cities in a sandycorner of the garden. He was making Rome,--for his father had told himthat Rome was built on seven hills, and he liked to make the seven hillsin the sand. He made a long channel for an aqueduct, and went into thehouse to get a dipper of water to fill his aqueduct, when he met Jamescoming again. So they went in, and got the spy-glass, and asked Jonas togo up and look again.
Jonas adjusted the glass, held it up to his eye, and looked some time insilence, 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 goand see."
"Perhaps we have caught him," said Jonas, "but it is not certain;sometimes the trap gets sprung accidentally. However, you may go and askyour father if he thinks it worth while for me to leave my work longenough to go down and see."
Rollo came back with the permission granted, and they all set off; Rolloand James running on eagerly before.
When they came to the trap, they found it shut. Jonas took it up, andtipped it one way and the other, and listened. He heard something movingin 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 peepin.
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 shiningeyes, and presently a nose smelling along at the crack.
"Yes, here he is, here he is," said Rollo; "look at him, James, look athim;--see, see."
They all peeped at him, and then Jonas took the box under his arm, andthey returned home.
Jonas told the boys he was not willing to keep the squirrel a prisonervery long, but he would try to contrive some way by which they mightlook at him. Now, there was, in the garret, a small fire-fender, whichhad been laid aside as old and useless. Jonas recollected this, andthought he could fix up a temporary cage with it. So he took a small boxabout as large as a raisin-box, which he found in the barn, and laid itdown on its side, so as to turn the open side towards the trap, and thenmoved the trap close up to it. He then covered up all the rest of theopen part of the box with shingles, and asked James and Rollo to holdthem on. Then he carefully lifted up the cover of the trap, and made arattling in the back part of it with the spindle. This drove thesquirrel through out of the trap into the box.
When Jonas was sure that he was in, he took the old fender and slid itdown very cautiously between the trap and the box, so as to cover theopen part entirely, and make a sort of grated front, like a cage. Thenhe took the trap away, and there the little nut-cracker was, safelyimprisoned, 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. Atfirst, 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 alittle corn," said Rollo; "perhaps he is hungry;" and he was justslipping some kernels in between the wires of the fender, when Bunnysprang forward, and, with a jump and a squeeze, forced his slender bodybetween two of the wires that were bent a little apart, leaped downupon the barn floor, ran along to the corner, up the post, and thencrept 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 nogood, for they could not catch him again now, and had better stand stilland see what he would do.
He soon began to run along on the beam; thence he ascended to thescaffold, and made his way towards an open window. He jumped up to thewindow sill, and then disappeared. The boys all ran around, outside, andwere just in time to catch a glimpse of him, running along on the top ofthe fence, down towards the woods again.
"Do let us run after him and catch him," said Rollo.
"Catch him!" said Jonas, with a laugh, "you might as well catch thewind. No, the only way is to set our trap for him again. I meant to lethim go, myself; but he is not going to slip through our fingers in thatway, I tell him." So Jonas went down that night and set the trap again.
For several days after this, the trap remained unsprung, and the boysbegan to think that they should never see him again. At last, however,one day, when Rollo was playing in the yard, he saw Jonas coming up outof the woods with the trap under his arm. Rollo ran to meet him, and wasdelighted to find that the squirrel was caught again.