PLANS FOR THE SQUIRREL.
As soon as Phonny had told Stuyvesant about his squirrel and had
lifted up the lid of the trap a little, so as to allow him to peep in
and see, he said that he was going in to show the squirrel to the
people in the house, and especially to Malleville. He accordingly
hurried away with the box under his arm. Stuyvesant went back toward
the barn.
Phonny hastened along to the house. From the yard he went into a shed
through a great door. He walked along the platform in the shed, and at
the end of the platform he went up three steps, to a door leading into
the back kitchen. He passed through this back kitchen into the front
kitchen, hurrying forward as he went, and leaving all the doors open.
Dorothy was at work at a table ironing.
"Dorothy," said Phonny, "I've got a squirrel--a beautiful squirrel. If
I had time I would stop and show him to you."
"I wish you had time to shut the doors," said Dorothy.
"In a minute," said Phonny, "I am coming back in a minute, and then I
will."
So saying Phonny went into a sort of hall or entry which passed
through the house, and which had doors in it leading to the principal
rooms. There was a staircase here. Phonny supposed that Malleville was
up in his mother's chamber. So he stood at the foot of the stairs and
began to call her with a loud voice.
"Malleville!" said he, "Malleville! Where are you? Come and see my
squirrel."
Presently a door opened above, and Phonny heard some one stepping out.
"Malleville," said Phonny, "is that you?"
"No," said a voice above, "it is Wallace. I have come to give you your
first warning."
"Why, I only wanted to show my squirrel to Malleville," said Phonny.
"You are making a great disturbance," said Wallace, "and besides,
though I don't _know_ any thing about it, I presume that you came in a
noisy manner through the kitchen and left all the doors open there."
"Well," said Phonny, "I will be still."
So Phonny turned round and went away on tiptoe. When he got into the
kitchen, he first shut the doors, and then carried the trap to
Dorothy, and let her peep through the hole which the squirrel had
gnawed and see the squirrel inside.
"Do you see him?" asked Phonny.
"I see the tip of his tail," said Dorothy, "curling over. The whole
squirrel is there somewhere, I've no doubt."
Phonny then went out again to find Stuyvesant. He was careful to walk
softly and to shut all the doors after him.
He found Stuyvesant and Beechnut in the barn. Beechnut was raking up
the loose hay which had been pitched down upon the barn floor, and
Stuyvesant was standing beside him.
"Beechnut," said Phonny, "just look at my squirrel. You can peep
through this little hole where he was trying to gnaw out."
Phonny held the trap up and Beechnut peeped through the hole.
"Yes," said he, "I see the top of his head His name is Frink."
"Frink?" repeated Phonny, "how do you know?"
"I think that must be his name," said Beechnut. "If you don't believe
it, try and see if you can make him answer to any other name. If you
can I'll give it up."
"Nonsense, Beechnut," said Phonny. "That is only some of your fun. But
Frink will be a very good name for him, nevertheless. Only I was going
to call him Bunny."
"I don't think his name is Bunny," said Beechnut. "I knew Bunny. He
was a squirrel that belonged to Rodolphus. He got away and ran off
into the woods, but I don't think that this is the same one."
"I'll call him Frink," said Phonny. "But what would you do with him if
you were in my place?"
"Me?" said Beechnut.
"Yes," said Phonny.
"Well, I think," said Beechnut, stopping his work a moment, and
leaning on his rake, and drawing a long breath, as if what he was
about to say was the result of very anxious deliberation, "I think
that on the whole, if that squirrel were mine, I should put two large
baskets up in the barn-chamber, and send him into the woods this fall
to get beechnuts, and hazelnuts, and fill the baskets. One basket for
beechnuts and one for hazelnuts, and I would give him a month to fill
them."
[Illustration: BEECHNUT'S ADVICE.]
"Nonsense, Beechnut," said Phonny, "you are only making fun. If I were
to let him go off into the woods, he never would come back again."
"Why, do you suppose," said Beechnut, "that he would rather be running
about in the woods than to live in that trap?"
"Yes," said Phonny.
"Then," said Beechnut, "you must make him a beautiful cage, and have
it so convenient and comfortable for him, that he shall like it better
than he does the woods. That would not be difficult, one would
suppose, because he has nothing but holes in the ground and old hollow
logs in the woods."
"I know that," said Phonny; "but then I don't think he would like any
house that I could make him, so well as he does the old logs."
"Then I don't know what you will do," said Beechnut, "to make him
contented."
So saying Beechnut went away, leaving Phonny and Stuyvesant together.
They talked a few minutes about the squirrel, and then began to walk
along toward the house.
As they walked along, they heard the bell ring for dinner.
"There," said Phonny, "there is the dinner-bell, what shall we do now?
Where shall I put my squirrel while we are in at dinner?"
"Haven't you got some sort of cage to put him in?" said Stuyvesant.
"No," said Phonny, "I was going to make one after dinner in my shop.
I have got a shop, did you know it?"
"Yes," said Stuyvesant, "Beechnut told me."
"Only my tools are rather dull," added Phonny. "But I think I can make
a cage with them."
"You might put the trap in the shop, on the bench," said Stuyvesant,
"till after dinner, and then make your cage."
"Well," said Phonny, "so I will."
So the two boys went into the shop. The room was indeed in great
confusion. The floor was covered with chips and shavings. The tools
were lying in disorder on the bench. There was a saw-horse in the
middle of the room, tumbled over upon one side, because one of the
legs was out. The handle was out of the hatchet, and one of the claws
of the hammer was broken.
While Stuyvesant was surveying this scene of disorder, Phonny advanced
to the bench, and pushing away the tools from one corner of it, he put
the trap down.
"There!" said he, "he will be safe there till after dinner."
"Only," said Stuyvesant, "he may finish gnawing out."
"I will stop him up," said Phonny.
So saying he took the foreplane, which is a tool formed of a steel
cutter, set in a pretty long and heavy block of wood, and placed it
directly before the hole in the trap. "There!" said he, "now if he
does gnaw the hole big enough, he can't get out, for he can't push the
plane away."
"Perhaps he will be hungry," said Stuyvesant.
"No," said Phonny, "for there was half an ear of corn tied to the
spindle for bait, and he has not eaten but a very little of it yet, I
can see by peeping in."
"Then, perhaps, he will be thirsty," said Stuyvesant.
"I will give him something to drink," said Phonny.
"Yes," said Beechnut.
The boys turned and saw Beechnut standing at the door of the shop,
looking at them. He continued,
"His name is Frink,
And so I think,
I'd give him a little water to drink."
So saying, Beechnut went away. Phonny took up an old tin cover which
lay upon a shelf behind the bench, and which had once belonged to a
tin box. The box was lost, but Phonny had kept the cover to put nails
in. He now poured the nails out upon the bench, and went out to the
pump to fill the cover with water.
In a minute or two he came back, walking carefully, so as not to spill
the water. He raised the lid of the trap a little, very cautiously,
and then pushed the cover in underneath it, in such a manner that
about half of it was inside the trap.
"There! That's what I call complete. Now he can have a drink when he
pleases, and we will go in to dinner."
* * * * *
At the dinner table, Phonny and Stuyvesant sat upon one side of the
table, and Malleville sat on the other side, opposite to them. Mrs.
Henry sat at the head, and Wallace opposite to her, at the foot of the
table. The dinner consisted that day, of roast chickens, and after it,
an apple pudding.
Wallace carved the chickens, and when all had been helped, Phonny
began to talk about the squirrel.
"I suppose you consider it as boyishness in me, Cousin Wallace, to
like to have a squirrel," said he.
"It is a very harmless _kind_ of boyishness, at any rate," replied
Wallace.
"Then you have no objection to it," said Phonny.
"None at all," said Wallace. "In one sense it is boyishness, for it is
boys, and not men, that take pleasure in possessing useless animals."
"Useless!" said Phonny, "do you call a gray squirrel useless?"
"He is not useful in the sense in which the animals of a farm-yard are
useful," said Wallace. "He gives pleasure perhaps, but cows, sheep,
and hens, are a source of profit. Boys don't care much about profit;
but like any kind of animals, if they are pretty, or cunning in their
motions and actions."
"I like gray squirrels," said Phonny, "very much indeed, if it _is_
boyishness."
"It is a very harmless kind of boyishness at all events," replied
Wallace. "It is not like some other kinds of boyishness, such as I
told you about the other day."
"Well, Cousin Wallace," said Phonny, "what would you do, if you were
in my case, for a cage?"
"I would take some kind of box, without any top to it," replied
Wallace, "and lay it down upon its side, and then make a front to it
of wires."
"Yes," said Phonny, "that will be an excellent plan. But how can I
make the front of wires?"
"I will come and show you," said Wallace, "when you get the box all
ready. You must look about and find a box, and carry it into the shop.
Is your shop in order?"
"No," said Phonny, "not exactly; but I can put it in order in a few
minutes."
"Very well," said Wallace. "Put your shop all in order, and get the
box, and then come and call me."
"Well," said Phonny, "I will."