“No,” said Rollo, “we must not go in there; for mother said that we must keep in smooth roads.”
“Well,” replied Royal, “that is a smooth road. It is just as smooth as this.”
Royal and Lucy looked in. The road was indeed smooth, but then it was narrow, and Rollo did not know into what difficulties it might lead them. He was quite reluctant to go in. But Royal assured him that there was no danger; and he said, also, that, if they should find any rough places after they had got in some way, they could easily turn around and come out.
So Rollo consented, and they turned off into the cart path.
After they had gone in for some distance, Royal said that they had got to a good place to collect leaves. So Lucy and Rollo put the tongue of the wagon down in the road, and went to the banks on each side, and began to gather the leaves from the various wild plants which were growing there. These leaves were of all shapes: some were long and pointed, others oval, others nearly round; some were shaped like a heart, some notched along the edges like a saw, and one which Royal got down from an oak-tree, Lucy said, wasn’t shaped like any thing at all.
While they were collecting these leaves, Lucy suddenly called out to Rollo, who was upon the side of the road with her,—
“O Rollo, Rollo, come here! here is a little squirrel! come and see him.”—
“Where? where?” said Rollo, running towards the place; “let me see; let me see.”
Royal, hearing this call, immediately dropped a large collection of leaves and flowers, which he had gathered, and ran across the road. When he first got sight of the squirrel, he was standing upon his hind legs on the end of a half-decayed log, holding a nut between his fore paws, which he nibbled a little from time to time, keeping, however, a sharp lookout upon the children all the while.
“I’ll catch him in my cap,” said he.