She gave another little jump, and right through the second paper hoop she went, coming down on the table close to the nut meats, which she began to eat; and very good they tasted, indeed.
“Ha! She did the trick again!” cried Bob.
“What a cunning squirrel!” exclaimed Mollie.
“She’s just too dear for anything,” said Sallie.
Slicko understood a little of this talk, and she was glad she had pleased the children. She was beginning to be very happy in her new home, and she liked Bob and his sisters very much.
The boy had Slicko jump through the paper hoops several more times that day, and then he put her back in the big wire cage, and let her rest. Wild animals do not like to be doing tricks all the while. They get tired just as you do.
The next day Slicko did the hoop tricks again, and soon she was so smart that she knew, as soon as she saw Bob with the paper-covered things, that she was to do her jumping trick. She did not have to have a piece of apple placed at one end of the table to make her jump, now.
But, each time, after she was through doing her little tricks, she was given something good to eat. That is always the way to train wild animals or pets—be kind to them when they have done what you want them to do.
Slicko lived in the house with the boy for several weeks. The weather had gotten colder now, and winter would soon be here. Slicko could tell this, for sometimes the windows of the room, in which her cage stood, were left open, and she could feel the cold wind. But her fur coat was growing warm and thick now, and she would not have minded being outdoors, no matter how cold it was, if she had plenty to eat.
But, after all, Slicko was rather glad that she had a good home for the coming winter. She remembered how, when she had lived in the home-nest, she had heard her papa and mamma talking in their chatter language about how hard it was, sometimes, to find things to eat, when the white snow covered the ground. Squirrels always store away nuts, but sometimes they can not get enough, and sometimes the winter is so long that they eat up all they have in their nest, before it is time for spring to come and bring other food.