Rollo at Play | Page 7

home and get a long pair of tongs, and get it with them at any rate,"
said he.
"O, yes," said Rollo, "I will go and get them;" and he ran off towards
the bridge.
"No," said Jonas, "stop; I will try one plan more."
So he went and cut a long straight stem of a bush, and trimmed it up
smooth, and cut the largest end off exactly square. Then he went to a
hemlock tree near, and took off some of the gum, which was very
"sticky." He pressed some of this with his knife on the end of the stick.
Then he reached it very carefully down, and pressed it hard against the
half dollar; it crowded the half dollar down into the sand, out of sight.
"There, you have lost it," said James.
"I don't know," said Jonas; and he began slowly and carefully to draw it
up.
When the end of the stick came up out of the sand, the boys saw, to
their great delight, that the half dollar was sticking fast on. They
clapped their hands, and capered about on the stone, while Jonas gently
drew up the half dollar, and put it, all wet and dripping, into James's
hand.

The boys thanked Jonas for getting up the money, and then they asked
him to keep both pieces for them until they went home. Then they
began to think of the wigwam again.
"We will make the window as you want it, James," said Rollo; "I am
willing."
"No," said James, "I was just going to say we would make it your way.
I rather think it would be better to make it towards the land."
"Why can you not have two windows?" said Jonas.
"So we can," said both of the boys; and they immediately went to work
collecting branches and weaving them in, leaving a space for a window
both sides. Their quarrelsome feelings were all gone, and they talked
very pleasantly at their work until it was time for them to go home to
dinner.

THE STEEPLE TRAP
[Illustration: "An escape."]

THE STEEPLE TRAP
* * * * *

THE WAY TO CATCH A SQUIRREL
The afternoon of the day when Rollo and his cousin James made their
wigwam in the woods by the brook, they were at work there again,
employed very harmoniously together, in finishing their edifice, when
suddenly Jonas, who was at work in the woods at a little distance, heard
them both calling to him, in tones of surprise and pleasure--

"O, Jonas, Jonas, come here quick--quick."
Jonas dropped his axe and ran.
When he got near them, they pointed to a log.
"See there;--see;--see there."
"What is it?" said Jonas. "O, I see it," said he.
It was a little squirrel clambering up a raspberry-bush, eating the
raspberries as he went along. He would climb up by the little branches,
and pull in the raspberries in succession, until he got to the topmost one,
when the bush would bend over with his weight until it almost touched
the log.
"Let us catch him," said Rollo, very eagerly; "do let us catch him; I will
go and get our steeple trap."
Jonas did not seem to be so very much delighted as the boys were. He
said he was certainly a cunning little fellow, but "what should we do
with him if we should catch him?"
"O," said Rollo, "we would put him in a little cage. It would be so
complete to have him in a cage! Do, Jonas, do."
"But you have not got any cage."
"We can get one," said James. "We can buy one with our half dollars."
"Well," said Jonas, "it will do no good to set the trap now, for he will
be away before we could get back. But I will come down to-night, and
set the trap, and perhaps we shall catch him, though I do not exactly
like to do it."
"Why?" said the boys.
"O," replied Jonas, "he will not like to be shut up all night, in a dark
box, and then be imprisoned in a cage. He had rather run about here,

and gather raspberries. Besides, you would soon get tired of him if you
had him in a cage."
"O no," said Rollo, "I should not get tired of him."
"Did you ever have any plaything that you were not tired of before
long?"
"Why,--no," said Rollo; "but then a real live squirrel is a different thing.
Besides, you know, if I get tired of him, I need not play with him then."
"No, but a real live thing must be fed every day, and that you would
find a great trouble. And then you would sometimes forget it, and the
poor fellow