SLICKO FINDS HER NEST
Scampering softly over the oilcloth of the kitchen floor, Slicko came
close to the man. Slicko thought it was Bob’s papa, but it was not.
I’ll soon tell you who the man was.
“I do hope he has some sugar for me,” thought Slicko, for sometimes
Bob’s papa would play at tricks and games with the little squirrel, and
do just as Bob did--hide things in his pocket.
Slicko was almost at the man’s leg. Her little claws made a
patter-patter-pat sound on the floor oilcloth. The man heard it, and
started.
“A rat!” he cried. “I don’t like rats!”
“The idea of calling me a rat!” thought Slicko. “I’ll soon show you who
I am, Mr. Bob’s papa.”
The next moment Slicko scrambled up the man’s leg, sticking her claws
in the soft cloth of his trousers.
“Get away from me! Get away from me!” the man cried, very much excited,
and he struck at Slicko. “Get off me!” and the man was fairly
screaming now. “Get away! I hate rats! I’m afraid of ’em!”
“Why, he’s worse than Tum Tum, the elephant,” said Slicko to herself.
“But maybe he’s only fooling. I’ll climb up on his shoulder and sit
there. Then maybe he’ll give me something to eat.”
Quickly Slicko scrambled up to the man’s shoulder. She put her soft,
cold nose on his neck.
“Oh! Oh! Go away! A rat! It’ll bite me!” cried the man.
He leaped aside and with his hand brushed Slicko away. She fell on the
kitchen table. And then, all of a sudden the whole house was filled
with light. Slicko sat up on the table in time to see the man give a
jump through the window, while from his pocket fell a shower of knives
and forks and spoons. For the man was a burglar--a thief--and he had
come in the night to rob.
Out of the window he jumped. Slicko could see him very well, for the
electric lights were turned on now. Up stairs Bob’s papa had heard the
burglar cry out, and he had switched on the lights.
“What a funny man,” thought Slicko of the burglar, “to jump out of the
window as I did. I wonder why he is running away.”
[Illustration: Slicko sat up on the table in time to see the man give a
jump through the window.]
Slicko saw a pan of water on the floor. She scrambled down and took a
long drink, for she was quite thirsty. But she was not at all afraid.
“I wish that man had let me sit on his shoulder,” she said to herself.
“He might have given me a nut, or a piece of sugar. And he called me a
rat--I don’t like that.”
After getting her drink, Slicko sat up on the table again, and waited.
She heard voices talking, and people coming down stairs. Bob and his
father came into the kitchen.
“Oh, look! There’s my squirrel Slicko!” cried Bob. “She’s come back!”
“Chatter! Chatter! Chat-chat-chatter-r-r-r-r!” chirped Slicko. “Of
course I’m your little pet squirrel come back again. I’m sorry I ran
away.” Only, of course, Bob did not understand this.
“What has happened?” asked the voice of Bob’s mother.
“Slicko has come back,” said Bob.
“Is that all?”
“No, something else happened,” said Bob’s father, “and I guess we have
Slicko to thank that our house was not robbed.”
“Our house robbed! What do you mean?”
“Why the kitchen window has been broken open, and here is some of
our silver scattered about,” said Bob’s father. “I heard a man yell
something about a rat, and I turned on the lights. He must have been a
burglar, but he got away.”
“What frightened him?” asked Bob. By this time Slicko was sitting on
Bob’s shoulder, eating a lump of sugar he had gotten for her from the
pantry.
“I think Slicko, your squirrel, frightened him,” said the boy’s father.
“That must have been it. The burglar came in here to rob us. In the
night Slicko came back, somehow, and probably she tried to make friends
with him, as she does with you, not knowing who he was. The man must
have thought Slicko was a rat, and, being afraid, he ran off. Slicko
saved us from being robbed, for see, the man dropped most of the things
he took. Your squirrel is very smart, Bob. She scared away the thief.”
“She is a good little squirrel,” said Bob. “I am glad she came back to
me.”
Slicko was put back into her cage for the rest of the night. She was
glad she had come back to Bob. Everybody went to bed.
The next day Slicko did her tricks again, and learned some new ones.
She had many nuts and apples to eat.
Still Slicko was not happy. The weather grew warmer. It was very warm
in the house, but Slicko was not allowed to be out of her cage.
“I don’t want her to run away again,” said Bob.
Poor Slicko was now very mournful. As the warm days came, she wanted to
be free to run in the shady woods. She would rather have sat swinging
on the branch of a tree, than whirl around in the wire wheel of her
cage.
“Bob,” said the boy’s father to him one day, “don’t you think your
squirrel would be happier if you let it go out in the woods to live?”
“What! Let my pet squirrel go?” asked Bob, in surprise.
“Yes,” answered his father. “Slicko is not happy in her cage now. She
might have been, in the winter, but now it is summer, and she ought to
be out in the open. I think she wants to go.”
Oh, how much Slicko hoped she could go! Her little heart beat very
fast, as she looked through the bars of her cage.
“Let Slicko go!” said Bob softly. “Oh, I can’t do that!”
“Slicko did us a very great favor,” said Bob’s father. “She frightened
away the burglar. I think, as a reward, you ought to let her go, Bob.”
Bob said nothing for a long while. Then he spoke softly.
“Very well, father,” he said. “I’ll let Slicko go free!”
Bob took the cage, with his pet in it, to the edge of the woods. He
opened the little wire door.
“You may go, Slicko,” said Bob. “Go off to the woods where you belong.
I’ll set you free, but I hope you will come and see me, sometime.”
“Chatter-chatter-chatter-r-r-r-r-r!” chirped Slicko. She sprang out
of the cage, and stood upright for a moment on the ground. Then, she
scrambled up on Bob’s shoulder and put her cold, soft nose on his
cheek. That was her way of kissing him good-bye.
Down scrambled Slicko, and off to the woods she ran.
“Good-bye, Slicko, my little jumping squirrel!” called Bob, as he went
back to the house with the empty cage. And yet, after all, he felt
happy that he had let Slicko go.
Slicko ran on and on through the woods. All that day she wandered
about. She found a spring and got a drink of water, and in a field she
found an early apple tree, and ate an apple.
The next day, as Slicko was jumping through the woods, she came to a
tree that she was sure she had seen before. Half way up was a big lump,
on which she knew she had often sat. A little farther up was a broken
limb, and, close to that limb was a hole.
“Why, that’s the nest where I used to live,” said Slicko. “I wonder if
papa and mamma, and Chatter and Fluffy and Nutto have come back! I’m
going up to see.”
Up the tree scrambled Slicko. She looked in her old nest. Something
inside it moved.
“Hello!” said Slicko.
“Why--why--why it’s Slicko--come back!” cried Chatter. “Papa--Mamma!
Nutto, Fluffy! Come here. Slicko has come back!”
Out of the nest rushed all the Squirrel family. They sat on their tails
and looked at Slicko.
“My! How she has grown!” cried her mother, patting Slicko with her paws.
“How long have you been here?” asked Slicko. “That time you sent me to
Aunt Whitey’s, I couldn’t find her--she wasn’t home.”
“No, Slicko,” said her papa, “your aunt had hurriedly moved to another
nest. We didn’t know it when we sent you there. And, not long ago, we
all came back here. For it is safe now. The hunter-man and his dog have
gone from these woods.”
“And so we are all together again,” said Fluffy. “I’m glad.”
“So am I!” exclaimed Slicko.
“But where have you been--and what happened to you?” asked the mamma
squirrel.
“Oh, I have had so many adventures!” cried Slicko. “I can jump through
paper hoops, I can crawl in Bob’s pocket and get sugar, and I scared
away a burglar!”
“My, you _did_ have some adventures,” said Mrs. Squirrel. “But come in
now, and have some dinner.”
And so that was the end of Slicko’s adventures for a while. She got
safely back to her nest, and she lived there with her father and
mother, and sister and brothers, for many years.
Sometimes she would meet Squinty, the comical pig, or Mappo, the merry
monkey. And that reminds me. I have some stories to tell you about him.
But I shall have to put them in another book. It will be named “Mappo,
the Merry Monkey,” and in it you may read all about his many adventures.
“Are you going to run away again, Slicko?” asked Nutto, one day about a
week after his sister came back.
“No, I am only going to run up to the top of this tree, and down
again,” said the little squirrel, and she did.
THE END
STORIES FOR CHILDREN
FROM 5 TO 9 YEARS OLD
THE KNEETIME ANIMAL STORIES
By Richard Barnum
Large 12mo. Cloth. Illustrated
Price per volume 40 cents Postpaid
In all nursery literature animals have played a conspicuous part; and
the reason is obvious for nothing entertains a child more than the
funny antics of an animal. These stories abound in amusing incidents
such as children adore and the characters are so full of life, so
appealing to a child’s imagination that none will be satisfied until
they have met all of their favorites--Squinty, Slicko, Mappo, Tum Tum
and Don.
Squinty, the Comical Pig
Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel
Mappo, the Merry Monkey
Tum Tum, the Jolly Elephant
Don, A Runaway Dog.
For sale at all book stores, or sent (postage paid) on receipt of price
by the publishers
BARSE & HOPKINS
Publishers, 526 W. 26th St. New York
* * * * *
Transcriber’s note:
--Punctuation and spelling inaccuracies were silently corrected.
--Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved.
--Variations in hyphenation and compound words have been preserved.