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Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel

<h2>CHAPTER VII SLICKO IS CAUGHT</h2> Poor Slicko was so surprised at first, and her leg pained her so much, from whatever it was that had grasped it, that the little squirrel lay quite still for a moment. Her heart beat very fast, and she thought of the many dangers, which her father and mother had told her might happen to little squirrels. “And I’m sure something dreadful has happened to me!” thought Slicko, as she looked all around with her bright eyes. “Yes, something dreadful has happened. I wonder what it is. Can it be that an owl, or a hawk or a snake has caught me?” Slicko tried to think of these different birds and the snake, for each one has a different way of catching a squirrel, and Slicko wanted to make sure which it was that had hold of her. Then, as she heard no fluttering of wings, which she would have heard had it been a big bird which had caught her, and, as she did not hear the hiss of an angry snake, she felt sure it was none of those dangers. [70] “But what can it be that has hold of my leg?” thought Slicko. She looked down, and there, partly hidden under the grass and the pile of nuts, where Slicko had not seen it before, was a steel trap. And her leg was caught in that trap, between two pieces of steel, that pressed together as hard as the rubber rollers of the wringer press on the clothes on washday. “Oh dear!” though Poor Slicko. “I am caught in a trap! Papa and mamma told me to be careful of traps, but I didn’t see this one. I guess I was thinking too much of the nuts. Oh dear! What shall I do? How can I get out?” That is what Slicko thought as she lay there, her leg in the trap, hurting her very much. All animals, when they are caught in a trap, at once begin to think of how they can get out. Some think one way, and some another, but they all think, or else how could some of them get out the way they do? Of course I don’t mean to say that animals think just the way we do, any more than they talk the way we do. But they talk and think in a language of their own. Slicko was not a very old squirrel, and this was the first time she had ever been in a trap. If she had been an older squirrel, she would not have gone near the pile of nuts, for an older[71] squirrel would have been sure they were put there on purpose to fool some animal. But Slicko did not think. That was why she was caught in the trap. “Oh, I must get out!” chattered poor Slicko. “I must get away from here, or some one may come and catch me!” Slicko tried to pull her leg out of the trap, but the strong spring of it held the steel jaws tightly together. Some animal traps have sharp teeth on the steel jaws that spring together, and they hurt very much. But this trap was not that kind, and Slicko was glad of it. So the only thing that happened to her leg was that it was badly pinched, and squeezed tightly. Still she knew that if she did not pull herself away, something else dreadful might happen to her. “Well,” said Slicko to herself, when she had tried several times to pull her leg out and could not, “if I can’t get loose from the trap, maybe I can pull the trap with me, off into the woods, and I can find some other big man-squirrel to help me get loose. That’s what I’ll do.” But when Slicko tried to run off, with the trap still fastened to her leg, she found that she could not. The trap was chained to a tree, and Slicko was held fast. “Oh dear!” cried the little squirrel. “I’m[72] never going to get loose. I wish my mamma or papa would come!” But Papa and Mamma Squirrel were away off in the woods, and they thought their little daughter was safe with her Aunt Whitey. They did not know all that had happened. Slicko tried and tried again to get out of the trap, or to pull the trap away with her, but she could not. Then, as she was pretty tired, and as her little heart was beating very fast, she lay down to rest. Finding some of the nuts close to her nose, she began to eat one, for she was quite hungry, even if she was fast in a trap. After Slicko had eaten a few nuts, she felt better. She was a little stronger, too, and she thought perhaps now she could get out of the trap, but, when she tried, the jaws of it held her as tightly as ever. “Oh dear! Oh dear! Oh dear!” cried poor Slicko. All at once she heard, off in the woods, the sound of bushes being trampled down. Twigs and branches snapped and broke, and Slicko knew something was coming. “I hope it isn’t a bear, or any bad animal that will get me,” thought the little girl squirrel. With her bright eyes snapping, Slicko watched and waited. [73] All of a sudden, through the bushes, straight for the place where Slicko lay, near the pile of nuts, came a boy. Slicko knew it was a boy because he was just like the hunter-man, only smaller. But the boy had no gun, and Slicko was glad of that. However, there was a dog with him, and for that, Slicko was sorry. “Here, Rover! Rover!” called the boy to his dog, for Rover was running all about, sniffing under stones and bushes. “Here, Rover! Let’s see if we have anything in our trap,” the boy called. “Ah! so he is the one who put the trap here to catch me!” thought Slicko. She could understand some man or boy-talk, though she could not speak it herself, just as your dog understands how to run to you when you say: “Come here!” But, though he understands you, he cannot make you understand him. “Bow wow!” barked the dog with the boy. “Bow wow!” “Yes, I hear you. What is it?” the boy asked. “Bow wow! Wow! Wow!” barked the dog, and Slicko saw him looking straight at her. I guess the dog was trying to tell the boy there was something in the trap, but the boy didn’t understand dog-talk very well. “Bow wow!” barked the dog again. And then, as Slicko tried to hide herself down under[74] the leaves, where the dog could not see her, that dog barked louder than ever. “Bow wow! Wow! Wow! Woppity-wop-wow!” “Well, you’re making a lot of fuss!” exclaimed the boy, as he pushed his way through the bushes. “Have you caught something, Rover, old boy?” “Bow wow! Yes!” answered the dog. Then the boy came up to the trap. “Ha! I have caught something!” he cried. “A squirrel, too! I thought I would if I piled up those nuts there, and hid the trap near them. Ha! I’ve caught a squirrel.” “Oh, what a mean boy you are!” said Slicko to herself. “You set the trap on purpose to catch me! Oh, how mean!” Now this boy was not mean exactly, or cruel, as you shall soon see. He was only thoughtless, as most boys are. He never really intended to hurt the little squirrel. Perhaps he thought the fur on a squirrel’s leg was so thick that the trap, springing shut, would not hurt. And, really, Slicko was not hurt such a terrible lot. But she felt badly enough, let me tell you. “Yes, I have a squirrel!” the boy cried, and he seemed real glad of it. “Now I can take it home and tame it.” Slicko did not know what “tame” meant, but[75] she thought if it meant being caught by your leg in a trap, that she would not like it at all. “Yes,” went on the boy, “I’ll take the squirrel home and tame it, and teach it tricks.” “Ha! Tricks!” said Slicko to herself. “Where have I heard that word before? Oh, I know! Squinty, the comical pig, could do tricks, and so could Tum Tum, the jolly elephant. “Well, maybe if this boy teaches me some tricks, it will not be so bad. Then I could go home and surprise Chatter, Fluffy and Nutto. I don’t believe they can do tricks.” Slicko watched the boy and dog. The dog was barking and jumping about in the leaves. He seemed quite excited at seeing the squirrel in the trap. “Quiet, Rover! Lie down!” said the boy, and Rover minded like the good dog he was. “Now, let’s see how I am going to get this little squirrel home,” the boy went on. “I ought to have brought a box.” “I wonder if he means take me to his home or my home?” thought Slicko. “I guess he must mean his home, for he doesn’t know where mine is—I don’t know myself.” “I hope the trap didn’t break her leg,” the boy went on. “I don’t believe it did, for the spring wasn’t very strong.” [76] “Oh, I’m sure my leg is broken,” thought poor Slicko. “It hurts very much.” The boy put out his hand very slowly to take the little squirrel out of the trap. “I wonder if you’ll bite,” he said. “Ha! That’s so. I can bite!” said Slicko out loud, but, to the boy, her talk only sounded like chattering. Slicko had sharp teeth, and very strong. They had to be, for with them she had to gnaw off the shell of hard hickory nuts. So Slicko knew she could bite fiercely if she wanted to. “But I don’t know that I want to,” thought Slicko. “If I bite, the boy will be angry at me, and if he is to teach me tricks, it will be better if we are friends. No, I won’t bite him, though I could if I wanted to.” Slowly and carefully, the boy put out his hand toward Slicko. “I wish I had a thick pair of gloves,” he said. “Then if you bit, it wouldn’t hurt. I got bit by a squirrel once, and I don’t want it to happen again.” “I won’t bite you,” said Slicko, though of course the boy could not understand her. Now his hand was on the soft fur of Slicko’s back, and he stroked her gently. “Poor little squirrel,” said the boy. “I’m sorry you were caught in the trap, and I hope[77] you’re not hurt much. I—I guess I’m never going to set any more traps.” The boy felt sorry now, for poor Slicko looked at him with such a sorrowful look in her bright eyes, that it really seemed as if she were crying tears of pain—that is, if squirrels can cry. They can feel pain, at any rate. So you see, though it was a sad thing for Slicko to be caught in a trap, in one way it was a good thing, for it taught the boy a lesson, and made him more kind-hearted. “I’ll soon have you loose, little squirrel,” the boy went on. Then he quickly pressed on the spring of the trap with one hand, while he held Slicko with the other. The jaws of the trap came open, and Slicko’s leg was loose. And oh! how good it felt not to be squeezed as she had been. Then, all of a sudden, Slicko felt herself lifted up, and put into a soft, dark place—a place as dark as the deepest, darkest part of the nest at home—the cellar part where the nuts were stored away for winter. <hr class="chap" /> [78] <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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