Early the next morning, James came over to learn whether they had
caught the squirrel; and he and Rollo wanted Jonas to go down with them
and see. Jonas said he could not go down then very well, but if he
would go and ask his father to lend him his spy-glass, he could tell
without going down.
Now Jonas had been a very faithful and obedient boy, ever since he came
to live with Rollo’s father. He had some great faults when he first
came, but he had cured himself of them, and he was now an excellent and
trustworthy boy. It was a part of his business to take care of Rollo,
and they always let him have what he asked for from the house, as they
knew it was for some good purpose, and that it would be well taken care
of. So when Rollo went in and asked for the spy-glass, and said that
Jonas wanted it, they handed it down to him at once.
Jonas took the glass, and they all three went up into the barn chamber.
Jonas opened the glass, and held it up to his eye. The boys stood by
looking on silently. At length, Jonas said,
“No, we have not caught him.”
“How do you know?” said the boys.
“O, I can see the trap, and it is not sprung.”
“Is not sprung?” said James, “what do you mean by _sprung_?”
“Shut. It is not shut. I can see it open, and of course the squirrel is
not there.”
“O, he may be in,” said Rollo, “just nibbling the corn. Do let us go
and see.”
Jonas smiled, and said he could not go then, but he would look through
the spy-glass again towards noon. He then gave the glass to Rollo, and
it was carried back safely into the house.
James soon after went home, and Rollo sat down in the parlor to his
reading. Afterwards he came out, and went to building cities in a sandy
corner of the garden. He was making Rome,—for his father had told him
that Rome was built on seven hills, and he liked to make the seven
hills in the sand. He made a long channel for an aqueduct, and went
into the house to get a dipper of water to fill his aqueduct, when he
met James coming again. So they went in, and got the spy-glass, and
asked Jonas to go up and look again.
Jonas adjusted the glass, held it up to his eye, and looked some time
in silence, and then said,—
“Yes, it is sprung, I believe. Yes, it is certainly sprung.”
“O, then we have caught him,” said the boys, capering about. “Let us go
and see.”
“Perhaps we have caught him,” said Jonas, “but it is not certain;
sometimes the trap gets sprung accidentally. However, you may go and
ask your father if he thinks it worth while for me to leave my work
long enough to go down and see.”
[Illustration]
Rollo came back with the permission granted, and they all set off;
Rollo and James running on eagerly before.
When they came to the trap, they found it shut. Jonas took it up, and
tipped it one way and the other, and listened. He heard something
moving in it, but did not know whether it was anything more than the
corn cob. Then he said he would open the trap a very little, and let
Rollo peep in.
He did so. Rollo said it looked all dark; he could not see any thing.
Then Jonas opened it a little farther, and Rollo saw two little shining
eyes, and presently a nose smelling along at the crack.
“Yes, here he is, here he is,” said Rollo; “look at him, James, look at
him;—see, see.”
They all peeped at him, and then Jonas took the box under his arm, and
they returned home.
Jonas told the boys he was not willing to keep the squirrel a prisoner
very long, but he would try to contrive some way by which they might
look at him. Now, there was, in the garret, a small fire-fender, which
had been laid aside as old and useless. Jonas recollected this, and
thought he could fix up a temporary cage with it. So he took a small
box about as large as a raisin-box, which he found in the barn, and
laid it down on its side, so as to turn the open side towards the trap,
and then moved the trap close up to it. He then covered up all the rest
of the open part of the box with shingles, and asked James and Rollo to
hold them on. Then he carefully lifted up the cover of the trap, and
made a rattling in the back part of it with the spindle. This drove the
squirrel through out of the trap into the box.
When Jonas was sure that he was in, he took the old fender and slid it
down very cautiously between the trap and the box, so as to cover the
open part entirely, and make a sort of grated front, like a cage. Then
he took the trap away, and there the little nut-cracker was, safely
imprisoned, but yet fairly exposed to view.
That is, they _thought_ he was safely imprisoned; but he, little rogue,
had no idea of submitting without giving his bolts and bars a try. At
first, he crept along, with his tail curled over his back, in a corner,
and looked at the strange faces which surrounded him. “Let us give him
a little corn,” said Rollo; “perhaps he is hungry;” and he was just
slipping some kernels in between the wires of the fender, when Bunny
sprang forward, and, with a jump and a squeeze, forced his slender body
between two of the wires that were bent a little apart, leaped down
upon the barn floor, ran along to the corner, up the post, and then
crept leisurely along on a beam. Presently, he stopped, and looked
down, as if considering what to do next.
The moment he escaped, the boys exclaimed, “O, catch him, catch him,”
and were going to run after him; but Jonas said that it would do no
good, for they could not catch him again now, and had better stand
still and see what he would do.
He soon began to run along on the beam; thence he ascended to the
scaffold, and made his way towards an open window. He jumped up to the
window sill, and then disappeared. The boys all ran around, outside,
and were just in time to catch a glimpse of him, running along on the
top of the fence, down towards the woods again.
“Do let us run after him and catch him,” said Rollo.
“Catch him!” said Jonas, with a laugh, “you might as well catch the
wind. No, the only way is to set our trap for him again. I meant to let
him go, myself; but he is not going to slip through our fingers in that
way, I tell him.” So Jonas went down that night and set the trap again.
For several days after this, the trap remained unsprung, and the boys
began to think that they should never see him again. At last, however,
one day, when Rollo was playing in the yard, he saw Jonas coming up out
of the woods with the trap under his arm. Rollo ran to meet him, and
was delighted to find that the squirrel was caught again.