“Muffins wouldn’t hurt your squirrel,” said Mollie, who liked the cat very much.
“Of course she wouldn’t,” said Sallie. “Rover, your dog, wouldn’t hurt Slicko, so why would our cat?”
“Well, a cat is different from a dog,” Bob would say. “A cat can’t help sneaking up, and wanting to jump on anything it sees moving. But a dog only barks, and makes a big fuss. He doesn’t really do any harm. Of course I don’t mean to say Muffins would intend to do Slicko any harm, but I won’t give Muffins a chance.”
So Bob never let the big cat come near his squirrel, and Slicko was glad of it, for Muffins had very hungry eyes. And now, when Slicko was running away, and Bob was not there to look after her, and when there was no strong wire cage to run and hide in, Slicko was very careful. She looked on both sides of her, as she ran along over the grass. Slicko was not going to be caught, if she could avoid it.
The little squirrel came to a tree, and up it she scrambled as fast as she could go. It was the first tree she had climbed since Bob had caught her in the trap, and Slicko was glad to find she had not forgotten how. Her leg, that had been pinched in the trap, was now as strong as the other ones.
Sticking her claws in the bark of the tree, Slicko went up, away to the top.
“There!” exclaimed the little squirrel, “if Muffins comes after me, she’ll have trouble in reaching me.”
Cats can climb trees, too, almost as well as squirrels can, though not so fast. But a cat does not very often go way up to the top of a tree, as Slicko had done.
The little runaway squirrel sat down on a tree branch and looked about her. The tree was just putting out its first green leaves, and the wind was blowing the branches gently to and fro, like a swing.