“If she wasn’t afraid, she’d go in and have a ride,” the boy said. “Come on, Slicko,” he called, “it won’t hurt you.”
Slicko did not want to. However, she kept getting more and more hungry, and those chestnuts looked so good!
“I’m going to try it!” said the little jumping squirrel to herself, finally. “I don’t believe that boy would do me any harm.”
Very slowly and carefully, Slicko stepped into the moving wheel. It rocked gently to and fro. As soon as the squirrel was all the way inside, it moved more. She felt as though she were falling and then, so that she should not fall, she took two or three little steps.
The wire wheel seemed to slide out from under her. It went whirling around, and the faster Slicko ran, the faster the wheel went. The little squirrel stayed right in the same place, but the wire wheel went round and round under her pattering feet.
“There she goes!” cried Sallie.
“Oh, see how fast she can run!” exclaimed Mollie.
“Yes, she has learned to do the trick,” said the boy. “I thought she would get so hungry that she would go in after the chestnuts, and then she’d make the wheel whirl.”
And that was just what Slicko had done. She was so surprised at the fast motion of the wheel that she did not think to eat the nuts inside. But now, after whirling about for some time, Slicko did not run so fast. The wheel went slower and slower, and finally stopped. The nuts, which had been rattling around with Slicko, dropped down beside her, and she began to eat them, sitting up on her hind legs, and holding them in her front paws, while she gnawed off the shell.
“Oh, isn’t she just too cute for anything!” cried Sallie.