ran out, scurried across the little
sugar-house and out though the open door.

Farmer Brown's boy understood. He understood perfectly that little
people like Whitefoot want their homes hidden away in the dark. "Poor
little chap," said Farmer Brown's boy."He had a regular castle here and
we have destroyed it. He's got the snuggest kind of a little nest here,
but he won't come back to it so long as it is right out in plain sight.
He probably thinks we have been hunting for this little home of his.
Hello! Here's his storehouse! I've often wondered how the little rascal
could eat so much, but now I understand. He stored away here more
than half of the good things I have given him. I am glad he did. If he
hadn't, he might not come back, but I feel sure that to-night, when
all is quiet, he will come back to take away all his food. I must do
something to keep him here."

Farmer Brown's boy sat down to think things over. Then he got an old box
and made a little round hole in one end of it. Very carefully he took up
Whitefoot's nest and placed it under the old box in the darkest corner
of the sugar-house. Then he carried all Whitefoot's supplies over there
and put them under the box. He went outside, and got some branches of
hemlock and threw these in a little pile over the box. After this he
scattered some crumbs just outside.

Late that night Whitefoot did come back. The crumbs led him to the old
box. He crept inside. There was his snug little home! All in a second
Whitefoot understood, and trust and happiness returned.

CHAPTER VI: A Very Careless Jump

Whitefoot once more was happy. When he found his snug little nest and
his store of food under that old box in the darkest corner of Farmer
Brown's sugar-house, he knew that Farmer Brown's boy must have placed
them there. It was better than the old place under the woodpile. It was
the best place for a home Whitefoot ever had had. It didn't take him
long to change his mind about leaving the little sugar-house. Somehow
he seemed to know right down inside that his home would not again be
disturbed.

So he proceeded to rearrange his nest and to put all his supplies of
food in one corner of the old box. When everything was placed to suit
him he ventured out, for now that he no longer feared Farmer Brown's boy
he wanted to see all that was going on. He liked to jump up on the
bench where Farmer Brown's boy sometimes sat. He would climb up to where
Farmer Brown's boy's coat