o you suppose made me dream?"

"I don't know."

"Do you think it's something I've eaten?" she asked anxiously.

"I hardly think so. This isn't any nightmare, you know, because there's
nothing at all horrible about it so far. You've probably been reading
some of those creepy, sensational story-books."

"I haven't read a book in a long time," said Twinkle.

"Dreams," remarked Mister Woodchuck, thoughtfully, "are not always to be
accounted for. But this conversation is all wrong. When one is dreaming
one doesn't talk about it, or even know it's a dream. So let's speak of
something else."

"It's very pleasant in this garden," said Twinkle. "I don't mind being
here a bit."

"But you can't stay here," replied Mister Woodchuck, "and you ought to
be very uncomfortable in my presence. You see, you're one of the
deadliest enemies of my race. All you human beings live for or think of
is how to torture and destroy woodchucks."

"Oh, no!" she answered. "We have many more important things than that to
think of. But when a woodchuck gets eating our clover and the
vegetables, and spoils a lot, we just have to do something to stop it.
That's why my papa set the trap."

"You're selfish," said Mister Woodchuck, "and you're cruel to poor
little animals that can't help themselves, and have to eat what they can
find, or starve. There's enough for all of us growing in the broad
fields."

Twinkle felt a little ashamed.

"We have to sell the clover and the vegetables to earn our living," she
explained; "and if the animals eat them up we can't sell them."

"We don't eat enough to rob you," said the woodchuck, "and the land
belonged to the wild creatures long before you people came here and
began to farm. And really, there is no reason why you should be so
cruel. It hurts dreadfully to be caught in a trap, and an animal
captured in that way sometimes has to suffer for many hours before the
man comes to kill it. We don't mind the killing so much. Death doesn't
last but an instant. But every minute of suffering seems to be an hour."

"That's true," said Twinkle, feeling sorry and repentant. "I'll ask papa
never to set another trap."

"That will be some help," returned Mister Woodchuck, more cheerfully,
"and I hope you'll not forget the promise when you wake up. But that
isn't enough to settle the account for all our past sufferings, I assure
you; so I am trying to think of a suitable way to punish you for the
past wickedness of yo