“What are you going to do?” asked his sister.
“You’ll soon see,” he answered with a laugh. “I am going to teach Slicko her first trick.”
Then the boy placed two or three nice, sweet, juicy chestnuts inside the wheel of the squirrel cage. This wheel went around and around, just as a barrel rolls over the ground, only the wire wheel of the squirrel cage stayed right in the same place, whirling about as does a merry-go-round.
“Now, when Slicko goes in to get the nuts, she’ll make the wheel go around,” the boy said to his sisters. “The faster she runs, the faster the wheel will go, and she’ll be doing a trick.”
“Oh, let’s watch her!” cried Sallie.
“Well, you may watch all you like,” said Slicko to herself, “but I am not going in that wheel. I’m afraid!”
So she stayed in the other part of the cage, looking at the chestnuts, and wishing she could get them, for she was getting more and more hungry every minute.
“Maybe I can pull one out without going in the wheel myself,” thought Slicko. She reached her paw in through the little round hole that led into the wheel from her cage. She could almost touch the chestnuts, but not quite.
“There! She’s going in!” cried one of the girls softly.
But Slicko did not go.