“Well, I guess it is,” laughed Lightfoot. “I’m glad you didn’t do that. But why are you lonesome?”
“I am looking for a rabbit named Flop Ear to play with,” answered Slicko. “He and I used to have jolly times together. We were both caught, but we were both let go again, and since then we have lived in these woods. But I haven’t seen him for some days.”
“I met him, not long ago,” said Lightfoot. “Did he have one ear that drooped over in a queer way?”
“Yes, that was Flop Ear,” answered the squirrel. “Please tell me where to find him. I want to have some fun. We have both had many adventures that have been put in books, and we like to talk about them.”
“So you have been put in a book, too,” said Lightfoot. “It is getting to be quite fashionable, as the ladies in the park used to say. I’d like to be in a book myself.”
“Perhaps you may be,” said Slicko. “I’ll tell you how I got in after I have some fun with Flop Ear. Please tell me where I can find him.”
“I left him over that way,” and Lightfoot pointed with his horns.
“Thank you. I’ll see you again, I hope,” and Slicko was scampering away with a nut in her mouth when Lightfoot called after her:
“Can you tell me where to find a canal? I was carried away on a canal boat, and I think now, if I can find the canal, I can walk along the path beside it and get to my own home. I am tired of wandering in the woods.”
“There is a large brook of water over that way,” said Slicko, pointing with her front paw from the tree. “I have heard them call it a canal. Maybe that is what you are looking for.”