“the prisoners scampered away.”
“Daddy,” he said softly, coming to the man’s side, “I don’t want to keep those rabbits.”
“Oh, they’ll make us a good dinner,” was the reply.
“I—I couldn’t eat ’em for dinner, Daddy. Not the mama rabbit and the little one she tried to save. Nor the dear little squirrel that wanted to help them. Let’s—let’s—let ’em go!”
The man stopped short and turned to look with a smile into the boy’s upturned, eager face.
“What will Mama say when we go back without any dinner?” he asked.
“You know, Daddy. She’ll say a good deed is better than a good dinner.”
The man laid a caressing hand on the curly head and handed his son the net. Charlie’s face beamed with joy. He opened wide the net and watched the prisoners gasp with surprise, bound out of the meshes, and scamper away into the bushes.
Then the boy put his small hand in his father’s big one, and together they walked silently along the path.