“I hope it isn’t a bear, or any bad animal that will get me,” thought the little girl squirrel. With her bright eyes snapping, Slicko watched and waited.
All of a sudden, through the bushes, straight for the place where Slicko lay, near the pile of nuts, came a boy. Slicko knew it was a boy because he was just like the hunter-man, only smaller. But the boy had no gun, and Slicko was glad of that. However, there was a dog with him, and for that, Slicko was sorry.
“Here, Rover! Rover!” called the boy to his dog, for Rover was running all about, sniffing under stones and bushes. “Here, Rover! Let’s see if we have anything in our trap,” the boy called.
“Ah! so he is the one who put the trap here to catch me!” thought Slicko. She could understand some man or boy-talk, though she could not speak it herself, just as your dog understands how to run to you when you say: “Come here!” But, though he understands you, he cannot make you understand him.
“Bow wow!” barked the dog with the boy. “Bow wow!”
“Yes, I hear you. What is it?” the boy asked.
“Bow wow! Wow! Wow!” barked the dog, and Slicko saw him looking straight at her.
I guess the dog was trying to tell the boy there was something in the trap, but the boy didn’t understand dog-talk very well.
“Bow wow!” barked the dog again. And then, as Slicko tried to hide herself down under the leaves, where the dog could not see her, that dog barked louder than ever.