Rollo at Play | Page 8

would be half starved."
"O no," said Rollo; "I am sure I should not forget it."
"Did you remember your reading-lesson this morning?"
"Why,--no," said Rollo, looking a little confused. "But I am sure I
should not forget to feed a squirrel if I had one."
"You don't know as much as I thought you did," replied Jonas.
"Why?"
"I thought you knew more about yourself than to suppose you could be
trusted to do any thing regularly every day. Why, you would not
remember to wash your own face every morning, if your mother did not
remind you. The squirrel is almost as fit to take care of you in your
wigwam, as you are to take care of him in a cage."
Rollo felt a little ashamed of his boasting, for he knew that what Jonas
said was true. Jonas said, finally, "However, we will try to catch him;
but I cannot promise that I shall let you keep him in a cage. It will be
bad enough for him to be shut up all night in the box trap, but I can pay
him for that the next day in corn."
So Jonas brought down the box trap that night. It was a long box, about

as big as a cricket, with a tall, pointed back, which looked like a steeple;
so Rollo called it the steeple trap. It was so made that if the squirrel
should go in, and begin to nibble some corn, which they were going to
put in there, it would make the cover come down and shut him in. They
fixed the trap on the end of the log, and Jonas observed, as he sat on the
log, that he could see the barn chamber window through a little opening
among the trees. Of course he knew that from the barn chamber
window he could see the trap, though it would be too far off to see it
plain.

THE WAY TO LOSE A SQUIRREL
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