“Doesn’t she look cute in there?” asked Mollie, laughing.
“She certainly does,” agreed Sallie.
“You wait until I teach her some tricks,” spoke the boy. “Then she’ll be worth looking at.”
Slicko made up her mind she would learn the tricks as soon as she could.
“Then I’ll be like Squinty, the comical pig,” she said to herself.
Soon Slicko felt quite at home in her new cage. She went inside the little bedroom, that was pretty dark, even in the daytime. Squirrels, and all wild animals, like to be in the dark, and off by themselves, once in a while.
Inside the little bedroom, which was made of tin and wire, like the rest of the cage, was some soft cotton, and in this Slicko could cuddle up and keep warm, even when winter came. And, as I have said, there was a dish for nuts and another for water. These the boy filled, and soon Slicko was eating her first meal in her new home.
“I wish she’d go in the wheel, and ride it,” said Mollie.
“She will, after a while,” the boy said. “I know how to make her.”
Slicko wondered how he would do it, but she could not guess.