Page:Master Frisky (1902).djvu/102

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find that he had been nibbling at his breakfast, or that he had hidden it somewhere in his cage.

Master Frisky did not know what to make of Gray-brush. I do not think that he had ever seen a squirrel before; anyway, he had not seen one so near. It was not a kitten, for the tail was too large and bushy; it was not a pup, of course, because he would know a pup at once; and what it was he didn't know.

Gray-brush grew better very fast under my care, and in a couple of weeks he was entirely well. Then he would sit perfectly erect upon his hind legs, with his tail gracefully balanced over one shoulder, and hold a nut between his forepaws and eat it. Around and around the nut would turn, while his sharp teeth dropped shavings from the shuck into the bottom of the cage. And when he had gnawed through to the fine meat, he would eat it with great relish, and then throw the shuck away.

When he had finished his breakfast, he would take his morning run on the wheel. It was not much like scurrying through the tree-tops, and the poor little fellow thought with regret of the sweet woods with the great trees to run upon. But, like the rest of the squirrel family, he believed in making the best of what he had; and so he would jump upon the wheel and make it spin around until all you could see was a dim and indistinct circle. When he got tired of scampering away so fast, and never getting anywhere, he would spring from the wheel, and