University of Virginia Library

5. V
A BOY CLIMBS A TREE

WHAT fun the Bushytail boys and Jacko were having ln the tall tree! The little boy squirrels and the tame squirrel, who was spending a few days with them, tried to see who could jump the greatest distance; they played tag and hide-the-acorn, and then one of them would go up to the top of the big tree and drop a leaf down, and see if he could get to the ground before the leaf did. Almost every time the squirrel was quicker than the leaf, which shows you that a squirrel is very quick, indeed, quicker even than a wink.

Well, after they had become tired of such

play, the squirrels sat in a row on a straight limb and looked down at the ground.

“What shall we do next?” asked Jacko, the tame squirrel. “It seems to me we have done everything we can do.”

“Oh, there are lots more things to do,” spoke Johnnie Bushytail. “We can jump over stumps, and we can race up and down the tree trunk, and we can hide in the dry leaves and find each other.”

“I don't think that is much fun,” said Jacko. “If I were in a city park now, I would be on the watch for some boy or girl to come along with peanuts for me.”

“Hickory nuts are as good as peanuts,” said Billie, “and if a boy or girl should come here we would be very frightened.”

“I would not,” answered Jacko. “Besides, I think peanuts are better than hickory nuts. The shells are not so hard.”

“Well, there aren't any boys or girls here,” said Johnnie, “but I can ask Jennie Chipmunk for some black walnuts. They are very nice. She does them up in maple sugar for the winter.”

“Humph! Maybe they would be nice,” admitted Jacko, so Johnnie got some.

“Didn't you want Jennie to play with us?” asked Billie, after they had eaten nuts. “She is very jolly.”

“She is a girl,” objected Jacko.

“Well, I think Jennie is very nice,” said Billie.

Then the three squirrels looked down at the ground again, and all at once Jacko cried out:

“Well, I declare, if there isn't a boy! I'm going right down. Maybe he has some peanuts.”

“No, don't,” cried Billie. “He might catch you.”

“I am a tame squirrel,” said Jacko, “and it doesn't much matter whether or not he catches me. So I am going down. I am hungry for peanuts.”

So, though Johnnie and Billie asked him not to, Jacko scrambled down the tree, and ran right up to that boy, who was out walking in the woods to see what he could find. Well, you can imagine how surprised that boy was, to have a squirrel run right up to him in the woods. Jacko perched upon his shoulder, and made a funny little noise. He was really asking for some peanuts, but the boy did not know what. He tried to catch Jacko in his hands, but the tame squirrel did not like that, and hopped down off the boy's shoulder.

Then, all at once, the boy called out:

“Hey, fellers, come over here. I've struck the funniest thing! A squirrel came up on

my shoulder, and there are two more sitting on the branch. Let's climb up and get them. Come on.”

Then, before Johnnie and Billie or Jacko could say a word, what should happen but that a lot of boys came running up where the first one stood. By this time even Jacko was frightened, and he scrambled up into the tree again. But this made no difference to the boys. One of them climbed right up that tree, and saw the nest where the squirrels lived. Grandpa and Grandma Lightfoot were just sitting down to a quiet acorn-cup of oak tea, when the boy looked in on them. Johnnie, Billie and Jacko had run to the very top of the tree, to be out of danger, and had forgotten to tell the old squirrels what was happening.

But Jennie Chipmunk was on the watch, and as soon as she saw that boy reach his

hand in the nest to catch grandpa and grandma she ran up and bit him on the finger. Oh, what a sharp nip she gave him. That boy was glad enough, I tell you, to slide down the tree again.

“Did you get the squirrels?” asked the other boys.

“No,” said the first one, “I didn't, and I wouldn't advise you to try it,“ and he put his bitten finger in his mouth because it hurt him, and he did not know what else to do with it. The boys stayed under the tree for some time, but the squirrels went and hid under the leaves, and pretty soon the boys went home. The tame squirrel was very sorry he had put his friends in such danger, and he did not get any peanuts after all. Now, let me see, what shall I tell you about to-morrow night? Oh, I know; it will be about how Billie went up in a balloon.