“Oh, then you’re a prisoner!” sighed Groundy. “I’m sorry for you. Are you tied by a chain?”
“Indeed, I’m not! They don’t chain me up. I’m not a prisoner, either.”
Groundy looked at him in silence, not quite able to understand. Buster was grinning at him as if he enjoyed his perplexity. Finally, Groundy said:
“I can’t believe you, Buster. But there’s one way to show me. If you’re not a prisoner, tied by a chain, climb down here. Then I’ll believe you.”
“I can’t—” began Buster, and then stopped. Of course, if he said that Groundy would go away convinced that he was actually chained inside the window.
“I thought so,” nodded Groundy. “Well, I’m sorry for you. I must be going now.”
“Wait a minute!” called Buster. “I’ll climb down just to show you, but I can’t stay.”
It really wouldn’t do any harm, he thought, to climb down and right back again to show Groundy that he was free. He would do it so quickly that he would be back in the cabin again before any one saw him. Groundy was waiting for him, and Buster couldn’t disappoint him now.
He dropped easily to the ground under the window, and cried: “How was that for a jump, Groundy! You couldn’t do better, could you?”
“No, but the thing that puzzles me is, how are you going to get back again? Anybody can jump down a hill, but not many can jump up it. Can you jump back to the window-sill?”