“Now for the door,” said Phonny; and he ran to the door and shut it, looking round as he went, toward the squirrel. As soon as he got the door shut he seemed relieved.
“There,” said he, “we have got him safe. The only thing now is to catch him.”
Here followed quite a long consultation between the two boys, in respect to the course which it was now best to pursue. Phonny’s first plan was to put the trap upon the table and then for him and Stuyvesant to drive the squirrel into it. Stuyvesant however thought that that would be a very difficult operation.
“If the squirrel were a horse,” said he, “and the trap a barn, we might possibly get him in; but as it is, I don’t believe the thing can be done.”
Phonny next proposed to chase the squirrel round the shop until they caught him. Stuyvesant objected to this too.
“We should frighten him,” said he, “and make him very wild; and besides we might hurt him dreadfully in catching and holding him. Very likely we should pull his tail off.”
After considerable consultation, the boys concluded to let the squirrel remain for a time at liberty in the shop, taking care to keep the door and windows shut. They thought that by this means he would become accustomed to see them working about, and would grow tame; perhaps so tame that by-and-by, Phonny might catch him in his hand.
“And then, besides,” said Phonny, “we can set the trap for him here to-night, when we go away, and perhaps he will go into it, and get caught so before morning.”
“Then we mustn’t feed him any this afternoon,” said Stuyvesant. “He won’t go into the trap to-night, unless he is hungry.”
“Well,” said Phonny, “we won’t feed him. I will leave him to himself, and let him do what he pleases, and I’ll go to work and make my cage.”