“Yes,” said Mary Anna, “it looks like him. I am afraid he has got out of some hole, and is going away. Sit still, and we will see what he will do.”
“O, no,” said Dwight, “I will go and catch him.”
“No, by no means,” said Mary Anna, holding Dwight back, “let us see what he will do.”
It was Mungo. He had gnawed himself a hole, and escaped from his prison.
He did not, however, seem disposed to go away very fast. He came down from the bush, and crept along upon the ground towards the brook, and then finding that he could not get across very well, he ran about the grass a little while, and then went back by degrees to the tree. He climbed up to the great branch, playing a minute or two about the grating over the hole, and then ran along out to the end of the branch, the children watching him all the time, and walking slowly along up towards the tree.
“I'll go and get him some corn,” said Mary Anna, “and see if he will not come down for it to his hole, when I call him. You stand here perfectly still, till I come back.”
So she went in and got a nut instead of corn, and put it down by the hole, calling “Mungo!” “Mungo!” as usual. The squirrel came creeping down the branch, and Mary Anna left the nut upon the grating, and went away. He crept down cautiously, seized the nut, stuffed it into his cheek, and ran off to one of the topmost branches; and there standing upon his hind legs, and holding his nut in his forepaws, he began gnawing the shell, watching the children all the time.
The next morning, Mary Anna tore off the netting, and the squirrel lived in the tree a long while. Caleb, however, saw but little more of him at this time, for he went to Boston the next week with his father. What befell him there may perhaps be described in another book, to be called “Caleb in Town.”