“Why, I only wanted to show my squirrel to Malleville,” said Phonny.
“You are making a great disturbance,” said Wallace, “and besides, though I don’t know any thing about it, I presume that you came in a noisy manner through the kitchen and left all the doors open there.”
“Well,” said Phonny, “I will be still.”
So Phonny turned round and went away on tiptoe. When he got into the kitchen, he first shut the doors, and then carried the trap to Dorothy, and let her peep through the hole which the squirrel had gnawed and see the squirrel inside.
“Do you see him?” asked Phonny.
“I see the tip of his tail,” said Dorothy, “curling over. The whole squirrel is there somewhere, I’ve no doubt.”
Phonny then went out again to find Stuyvesant. He was careful to walk softly and to shut all the doors after him.
He found Stuyvesant and Beechnut in the barn. Beechnut was raking up the loose hay which had been pitched down upon the barn floor, and Stuyvesant was standing beside him.
“Beechnut,” said Phonny, “just look at my squirrel. You can peep through this little hole where he was trying to gnaw out.”