lly fastened, and forgetting all about his thick
gloves he put his hand inside the little wire house, picked Frisky up
by the back of his neck, just as if he were a kitten, and lifted him
out of his prison.

Johnnie wanted to see if he could find out what was the trouble with
the little fellow. He thought that perhaps he had a bad tooth, which
prevented his eating. And Johnnie tried to look inside of Frisky's
mouth.

At first Frisky kept perfectly still. He could hardly believe that he
was outside that horrid, cramped cage. But it was true! And when
Johnnie Green began to poke at his mouth with a bare finger Frisky
Squirrel thought that it was high time for him to do something.

So he did it. He didn't wait another second. Quick as a flash he sank
his sharp teeth into Johnnie Green's finger.

Poor Johnnie Green! He gave such a yell that you could have heard him
far away on the other side of Swift River. That was the first thing he
did. And the next thing that Johnnie did was to drop Frisky right on
the ground.

That was exactly what Frisky wanted. He no sooner touched the ground
than he was away like a shot. It was not at all like running inside the
wheel. Every leap carried him further away from Farmer Green's house.
And he had crossed the road and disappeared behind the stone-wall before
Johnnie Green knew what had happened.

For several days after that Johnnie Green had to keep his finger bound
up in a bandage. And he felt very sad at losing his pet squirrel.

But Frisky Squirrel was not sad at all. And neither was his mother. At
first, when Frisky tumbled inside her house she hardly knew him. For a
long time she had almost stopped believing he would ever come home
again. And now that he had come he was so changed that she could
scarcely believe it was he.

The first thing that Mrs. Squirrel did was to set before Frisky some
choice seeds which she had gathered that very day. And Frisky ate
every one of them. You see, he had found his appetite again.

For several days after that Frisky Squirrel did very little except
eat. And it was surprising--the way he began to grow fat. His sides
soon stuck out more than they ever had before, and his coat began to
grow sleek and shiny. And as for his tail--though it took longer for
_that_ to look beautiful again, in the course of time it became just
as thick and handsome as ever. Mrs. Squirrel was very glad of that.
For Frisky reminded her of his father once more.