University of Virginia Library

18. XVIII
PAPA AND MAMMA GET BACK HOME

YOU remember I told you some nights ago how it was that Johnnie and Billie Bushytail had to live with their grandpa and grandma and Jennie Chipmunk. It was because Papa and Mamma Bushytail had been captured by a boy, and put into a cage with a wheel that went around faster than the fastest merry-go-round you ever saw. Well, now I am going to tell you how the squirrels escaped from the cage.

The boy who had them was very kind to them, and gave them nice nuts to eat, but still they wished they could be free, to run about in the woods, and even the wheel that

went around did not make them forget their little squirrel children.

So one day, after the boy had fed his pets, and cleaned the cage, what do you think happened? Why, he forgot to fasten the door. Yes, sir, that's just what he did, I'm not fooling a bit. He went out of the room, and left the cage door open, and Papa Bushytail saw that it was swinging to and fro.

“Come on, quick!” he called to Mamma Bushytail. “This is the very chance we have been looking for. We will run out and go back to our dear children and Grandpa and Grandma Lightfoot and Jennie Chipmunk.”

“But how are we going to get out of this big house? asked Mamma Bushytail, and she felt so badly that a tear came in each eye, and fell into the drinking water.

"Oh, we'll find a way,” replied her husband. “Come on, now. Run!”

So out they ran, faster than an elephant running after a peanut and a lump of sugar. They scrambled out of the cage on to the table, down to the floor, and, my, what good luck they did have! If there wasn't a window open in the room. They jumped right out of the window on a porch, and from there they could easily reach a tree. Oh, how glad they were to be in a tree again! They had thought they never again would run up and down the branches, and hide under the leaves.

“Which way is home?”asked Mamma Bushytail.

“Leave that to me,” answered Papa Bushytail. “I can find it.”

“I hope you can,” said his wife, “for I am so anxious to see my dear children again.”

Then Papa Bushytail ran to the very top of the tree, until he could see the Orange

Mountains, where he used to live. He caught a glimpse of them, a long way off, and then he and his wife hurried toward them as fast as they could go. And, oh, how very glad they were when they reached the place where they used to live.

“Now, we will go right to father's house, and see Johnnie and Billie,” declared Mamma Bushytail, for, you see, Grandpa Lightfoot was her papa when she was a little girl, and, of course, he kept on being her papa after she got married, which is perfectly natural, you know.

Now it happened that on the very day Papa and Mamma Bushytail escaped, Johnnie and Billie had gone to play in the woods. They had their bows and arrows, but they did not shoot at each other, for they had become tired of playing soldier, and were pretending they were hunting bears. Well, all

at once, just as Billie was aiming at a big stump (which was a make-believe bear, you know), what should happen but that two squirrels ran up to him. One of them hugged him from in front, and the other hugged him from in back. And then both of the big squirrels cried out:

“Oh, it's Billie! It's our little Billie! Where is Johnnie?”

Billie was so surprised he hardly knew what to do, but just then out ran Johnnie from behind a tree, and the two big squirrels hurried over to him, and hugged him with their paws until he could hardly breathe. And they exclaimed:

“Oh, it's our dear little boy, Johnnie! How he has grown,” cried Papa Bushytail. “And so has Billie!” declared Mamma Bushytail. Then the two little squirrel boys knew their papa and mamma had come back to them.

“Oh, mamma,” cried Johnnie. “We can jump! Grandpa Lightfoot taught us!”

“And we found some Christmas nuts!” added Billie.

“And we were shipwrecked!” went on Johnnie.

“And I went up in a balloon,” continued Billie.

“And we were lost and an owl hollered at us!” cried the two boys at once. “Oh, mamma and papa, how glad we are that you are home.”

“Bless your dear little hearts, we are glad to get home,” said Papa Bushytail.

“Now we'll go see grandpa and grandma and Jennie, and have a cup of oak-leaf tea, for we never had a bit in the cage.” Then the papa and mamma squirrels hugged their little boys again, as hard as ever they could, and they all hurried to the nest. So I shall

have some more to tell you about what happened after that, if you are good, and I think to-morrow night the bedtime story will be about how Billie and Johnnie found a little sister.