The squirrel’s heart was thumping wildly under the soft fur of his chest, and his breath came in quick gasps as he turned his head rapidly from side to side, searching a chance to escape.
“Is he your tame squirrel, Ben?” Ruth Warren inquired.
“Not exactly; you see we’ve been feeding him from the dining-room window, so he’s quite tame,” explained Ben, “and—and I caught him on the wood-pile, with some nuts, and brought him along to see if the girls would be frightened.”
“O, that is it,” was all Ruth Warren said, but Ben’s face grew redder than ever.
Making a sudden leap, the squirrel landed on top of the tall bookcase. From here he gave another leap to the top of a window, and began scolding loudly.
“I will bring some walnuts, Ben, so that you can capture this frightened little creature and take him home,” Miss Ruth said, going to the pantry.
“Now aren’t you sorry, Ben?” teased Betty.
The relish of the joke was indeed gone for Ben, but he faced the music bravely, for, though often heedless, he was no coward. When Miss Ruth came back with the walnuts, he asked the girls to keep quiet, and in a few moments coaxed Mr. Squirrel down from the window-top to the mantel, where he sat with his bushy tail curled up over his back, turning a nut-meat round and round in his paws as he ate it, listening and watching intently.
It was hard for Betty and Elsa to keep from laughing, and even Miss Ruth had difficulty in keeping her face sober, for Ben in his sister’s short-skirted dress, which hardly came to his knees,—leaving an extra long pair of thin legs which ended in good-sized feet,—was an exceedingly droll sight. A giggle from Betty at the critical moment sent the squirrel flying to the curtain-top again; but greedy hunger conquered fear, and growing venturesome again, the squirrel came by cautious degrees down to the window-sill. While he sat there, filling his cheek pouches with the cracked walnuts, Ben, who had been close at hand all the while, deftly captured him and tucked him away securely into the blouse waist.
“Now, if one of you girls will unfasten this old dress skirt, I’ll drop it off,” Ben said meekly, after struggling to unbutton the skirt with one hand while holding the squirrel fast with the other. “I can’t go through the streets with a skirt on,” he added, shamefacedly.