“Could you tell me how to get out of the woods and back to my home with Mike, near the rocks?” asked Lightfoot.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t,” answered the rabbit.
The rabbit and the goat talked in animal language for some little time longer, then Flop Ear said he must go back to his burrow, or underground home.
“And I’ll travel on and see if I can find my home,” said Lightfoot. “I’ve been lost long enough.”
For two or three days more Lightfoot wandered about in the woods. He looked everywhere, but he could not find his home near the rocks. One afternoon, as he was asleep under a tree, he was suddenly awakened by feeling something hit him on the nose.
“I wonder if it’s going to rain?” said Lightfoot, jumping up suddenly. Then something hit him on his left horn and bounded off. Lightfoot saw that it was an acorn, many of which he had seen in the woods.
“I guess it fell off a tree,” he said.
“No, it didn’t. I dropped it,” said a chattering voice in the air. “I am lonesome and I wanted some one to talk to. So I awakened you by dropping an acorn on your pretty black nose. Excuse me.”
“But who are you and where are you?” asked Lightfoot.
“I am Slicko, the jumping squirrel,” was the answer, “and I’m perched on a limb right over your head.”