SLICKO RUNS AWAY
“Come on, get the apple, Slicko!” called Bob.
“How can she, when you keep putting that paper hoop in front of her?”
asked Bob’s sister Mollie.
“She’ll go right through it,” said Sallie.
“That’s just what I want her to do,” Bob answered, with a laugh. “It
will be a fine trick.”
Slicko did not understand all of this talk, but she did want that
apple, and when she heard Bob say “trick,” she began to understand
that, after all, perhaps the hoop was only put in front of her for fun.
So the next time she ran toward the piece of apple on the table, and
the boy moved the paper hoop in front of her, Slicko gave a sudden
little jump, and, right through the paper she went, breaking a hole in
it, and landing close to the piece of apple.
“Hurrah!” cried the boy. “There she goes!”
“Oh, wasn’t that cute!” exclaimed Mollie.
“Just too sweet for anything,” spoke Sallie. “I hope she didn’t hurt
herself!”
“Hurt herself? Of course not!” cried Bob. “How could she, when the
paper was so soft and thin? And she has learned another trick now,
haven’t you, Slicko?”
Slicko was too busy eating the apple to answer, even if she could have
spoken boy language. She sat up on her hind legs, with her tail spread
out over her head, and, holding the bit of apple in her paws, which
were like little hands, she nibbled at the sweet pulp.
“Will she do it again?” asked Mollie.
“I guess so,” answered the boy. “I’ll try her once more. This time I’ll
give her a nut.”
When Slicko had finished eating the apple, Bob took her gently up in
his hands, and set her down at one end of the table. On the other end
he placed some pieces of hickory nut meats, with the shells off.
“Ah, ha!” thought Slicko. “They look good! I can eat them without
stopping to gnaw off the hard shell.”
The little jumping squirrel started toward the pile of nut meats, but,
before she could reach them, Bob put in front of her another hoop,
covered with paper.
Just as she had done at first, Slicko tried to run to one side, but
Bob kept the hoop in front of her. Slicko had forgotten about jumping
through, even though she had done it only a little while before.
[Illustration: Slicko gave a sudden little jump, and, right through the
paper she went.]
Most animals are that way when first they learn a new trick. They
forget very easily, until they have done it over and over again. It was
this way with Slicko.
But as Bob kept the hoop in front of her, and as she kept smelling the
nice nuts at the other end of the table, it came into Slicko’s head
that she must jump through the paper of the hoop to get them, just as
she had done to get the piece of apple.
“Here I go!” thought the little squirrel.
She gave another little jump, and right through the second paper hoop
she went, coming down on the table close to the nut meats, which she
began to eat; and very good they tasted, indeed.
“Ha! She did the trick again!” cried Bob.
“What a cunning squirrel!” exclaimed Mollie.
“She’s just too dear for anything,” said Sallie.
Slicko understood a little of this talk, and she was glad she had
pleased the children. She was beginning to be very happy in her new
home, and she liked Bob and his sisters very much.
The boy had Slicko jump through the paper hoops several more times that
day, and then he put her back in the big wire cage, and let her rest.
Wild animals do not like to be doing tricks all the while. They get
tired just as you do.
The next day Slicko did the hoop tricks again, and soon she was so
smart that she knew, as soon as she saw Bob with the paper-covered
things, that she was to do her jumping trick. She did not have to have
a piece of apple placed at one end of the table to make her jump, now.
But, each time, after she was through doing her little tricks, she
was given something good to eat. That is always the way to train wild
animals or pets--be kind to them when they have done what you want them
to do.
Slicko lived in the house with the boy for several weeks. The weather
had gotten colder now, and winter would soon be here. Slicko could tell
this, for sometimes the windows of the room, in which her cage stood,
were left open, and she could feel the cold wind. But her fur coat
was growing warm and thick now, and she would not have minded being
outdoors, no matter how cold it was, if she had plenty to eat.
But, after all, Slicko was rather glad that she had a good home for the
coming winter. She remembered how, when she had lived in the home-nest,
she had heard her papa and mamma talking in their chatter language
about how hard it was, sometimes, to find things to eat, when the
white snow covered the ground. Squirrels always store away nuts, but
sometimes they can not get enough, and sometimes the winter is so long
that they eat up all they have in their nest, before it is time for
spring to come and bring other food.
“But that can’t happen to me here,” thought Slicko. “No matter how
cold it is outside, or how much snow there is, I shall be warm in this
house, and Bob and his sisters will give me enough to eat. After all,
maybe it is a good thing Bob caught me and brought me here.”
Bob taught his pet squirrel other tricks. He taught Slicko to crawl
right up to his pocket, and go to sleep there. He also taught her to go
into his pockets after lumps of sugar, and other good things to eat.
When she had found them, she would come out and sit on his shoulder
to eat them. This always made the children who saw it laugh, and they
thought Slicko was a very cute squirrel indeed.
Bob’s sisters tried to teach Slicko tricks. But they wanted to make a
sort of doll of her, and, though Slicko was a girl squirrel, she knew
nothing of dolls.
“Oh, wouldn’t she look cute dressed up in one of my dolls’ dresses?”
asked Mollie of Sallie, one day.
“Yes, indeed! Let’s try it!” exclaimed Sallie.
They took Slicko out of her cage, and, though they handled her very
gently, the little squirrel did not like being put inside a doll’s
dress.
“Oh, isn’t she too cute!” cried Mollie.
“Yes,” said Sallie. “Now let’s put her in the doll carriage and wheel
her about.”
But this was too much for Slicko. It was bad enough to be dressed up as
a doll, but when it came to being put in a thing on wheels, and ridden
about the room, that was more than Slicko would stand. She did not mind
her wire wheel in the cage, but she did not like to be wheeled in the
carriage.
Out she jumped, and with her paws she pulled off the doll’s dress that
had been tied on her. Then, chattering as loudly as she could, she ran
to her cage, and hid in the little place where she slept. There Mollie
and Sallie could not get her.
“Oh, well, never mind. Let’s play with our real dolls,” said Mollie.
“Maybe Bob wouldn’t like us to dress up his squirrel.”
“All right,” agreed Sallie. And Slicko was glad to be left alone.
She did not mind when Bob taught her tricks.
“If I learn a number of them,” thought Slicko, “I shall be as smart as
Squinty, the comical pig, or as Mappo, the monkey, or Tum Tum, the
jolly elephant. I wonder if I shall ever see them again.”
Slicko felt a little sad when she thought of her animal friends.
Then she began thinking of her father and mother, of her sister and
brothers, and of Aunt Whitey.
“I wonder where Aunt Whitey could be?” thought Slicko. “I should like
to see her again.”
At these times Slicko became a little lonesome and homesick. But,
whenever she was beginning to get too sad, Bob would come, take her
out of the cage, and either give her something good to eat, or put her
through some of her tricks. Then Slicko would be happy once more.
As the days went on, Slicko became so tame that the door of her cage
was never shut. She could come and go as she pleased, and she roamed
all about the house. She would come to the dinner table, and sit
up near Bob, who would feed her from his plate. And then she would
scramble into his pocket, to get a bit of sugar.
The winter came, with its cold and snow. Slicko stayed in the warm
house. Then the days began to get warmer. Spring was coming. One day it
was warm enough for the windows of the room, where Slicko’s cage stood,
to be opened. The little squirrel smelled the fresh air of spring.
She seemed to smell the cool, green woods, where the trees were just
beginning to put on their new green dresses of leaves.
Something seemed to be calling to Slicko. She heard the hum of bees,
the song of birds and the chatter of other squirrels. A strange feeling
came over Slicko. She wanted to run away to the woods.
She looked all around the room. No one was there. The door of her cage
was open. Softly, on her pattering feet, Slicko ran to the window. She
climbed to the sill, looked out into the garden, and off to the woods.
Then Slicko jumped down into the soft, green grass, and ran away.