“I guess she has gone far off,” thought Slicko. “Well, I will stay here until I find some other place to go. Oh dear! If mamma and papa only knew I was here all by myself, they would come to me, or take me with them. But now I shall have to stay all alone. Oh dear!”
It was the first time little Slicko had ever been alone at night, but she was going to be brave. Little animals have to be brave whether they want to or not, and they have to leave their homes and find their own things to eat, much younger than do real children.
So, in a way, animals do not so much mind being away from their papas and mammas as you children would.
At first Slicko was pretty lonesome. She shivered, and cuddled down in the leaves of her aunt’s nest, and wished she had her brothers Fluffy and Nutto, and her sister Chatter, to play with. They had always played little jumping or running games before going to sleep nights. But now Slicko was all alone, and had no one to play with.
But, as I have said, Slicko was going to be brave.
After the little jumping squirrel got over her first feeling of fright, she began to be hungry. There were a few nuts left in the nest, and Slicko ate some of them, and felt better.
“And now I must make a warm place to sleep,” she thought. Her mother had taught her how to make herself a bed in the dried leaves, and now Slicko did this. She smoothed out a little hole, and pulled up some leaves that would fall over her, and cover her up like a blanket, when she went to sleep. For though it was not yet winter, it was very cool in the woods at night.
Soon Slicko was fast asleep. Animals go to sleep very easily when they have eaten, and are not frightened. They do not have to be sung to, nor told stories, and they do not have to have the light turned down low. They always go to bed without a light.
Once, in the middle of the night, Slicko was awakened. She heard a noise at the opening of the nest, a scratching sort of noise, and it sounded as though some one were trying to come in.
“Oh, dear! I wonder who it can be?” thought Slicko. “But I’m not going to get up to look,” she went on. “No, indeed!”