"Oh, are you indeed!" exclaimed the squirrel with a flirt of his whiskers. "Well, you are just halfway there. If you walk briskly you'll find yourselves out of the forest in another two hours."
"How do you know we are just halfway there?" asked Dorothy.
"Because I've measured the distance many times," replied the squirrel.
"I should think you would prefer to live nearer the village of Pineville," remarked Dorothy. "It must be very lonesome here in this deep pine forest."
"Oho! That shows how unobserving you mortals are!" exclaimed the red squirrel. "My family and I wouldn't think of living anywhere but here, no matter how lonely it is. Know why?"
"No, I must say I don't," confessed the girl.
"Look at my tree—look at my tree!" chattered the squirrel, flirting his big bushy tail in the direction of the tree from which he had appeared.