“Why?” asked the wily woodchuck.
“Because there is going to be a big storm,” was the pig’s answer. “I am going back to my pen. I really oughtn’t to have come out, but I get tired of staying shut up so much, and, once in a while, I root my way out with my rubbery nose. But I’m going back now before I am caught in the storm, and you, also, had better find a place of shelter.”
“Thank you; I’ll look for one,” said Winkie.
She went on a little farther, after bidding good-bye to Squinty. All at once, she heard a sound in a tree over her head.
“Oh,” cried Winkie, “is that one of the birds come to tell me he has found my family?”
“No, I’m not a bird,” was the answer; “though I stay in the trees a great deal of the time. I am Slicko, the jumping squirrel. I know you, Winkie. Don told me about you. Have you a good place to stay this night?”
“No, I have no home,” sadly answered Winkie.
“Then you had better stay in this hollow tree,” said Slicko kindly, pointing to one near by. “There is going to be a big storm, and you will be frightened if you are out in it. I can always tell when a storm is coming, hours before it gets here.”
“That’s what Squinty said,” remarked Winkie.
“Oh, do you know that comical pig?” asked the jumping squirrel. “Isn’t he funny?”