For several days the little jumping squirrel lived in her new cage. The boy and his sisters would come to watch her, and bring her nice things to eat, so Slicko soon became real tame. Often other children would come to look at her.
Sometimes the boy would take her out, and put her in his pocket, as he had done on the day he brought Slicko from the woods, after she had been caught in the trap. Then Slicko would stick her head out, just a little bit, and all the children would exclaim:
“Oh, isn’t she cute!”
Slicko did not know exactly what “cute” meant, but she tried to be as nice and polite as she could.
“Have you taught your squirrel any tricks yet?” asked Mollie of her brother, one day.
“No, but I am going to try one now. Do you want to watch?”
“Indeed I do!” said the little girl.
Slicko saw the boy take all the nuts out of the eating dish.
“I wonder what he is doing that for,” the little squirrel thought. “I’m hungry, and I want to eat those nuts.” But the boy took every one.