And he wondered if he was ever going to
see her again.
XX
Johnnie Green Forgets Something
Although Johnnie Green took good care of Frisky Squirrel, that once
lively young chap did not like his new home in the wire cage at all.
His young master gave him plenty to eat--nuts and grain--all the things
that Frisky had always liked before. But now nothing tasted the same.
Frisky never felt really hungry. He just sat in his cage and moped and
sulked.
Once in a great while he would go out into his wheel, and run and run
until he was so tired that he was ready to drop. Whenever Johnnie
Green saw him running inside the wheel that young man would laugh
aloud--he was so pleased.
But nothing ever pleased Frisky Squirrel any more. He grew peevish and
cross and sulky. Being cooped up in that little wire prison day after
day made an entirely different squirrel of him. He longed to be free
once more--free to scamper through the tree-tops, and along the
stone-walls and the rail-fences. And at night he dreamed of hunting for
beechnuts, and chestnuts, and hickorynuts, on which he would feast to
his heart's content--in his dreams. But in the daytime, when his young
master put some of those very same nuts into his cage, Frisky would
hardly touch them. He lost his plumpness. His smooth coat grew rough.
And his tail--that beautiful tail that Jimmy Rabbit had tried to cut
off--alas! it was no longer beautiful. It was thin and ragged-looking.
At last Johnnie Green began to be worried about his pet squirrel.
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