The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1883-01-24
Those Squirrels.

IAllan Forman, in Harper's Young People.I
"Say, Tom, the kittens are gone," an
nounced my brother Charlie, peering int
the Manager where we had a few days be
fore discovered Madame Puss and her fam
lily snugly installed.
ais Puss there7" / asked.
eyes, and she seems awful lonesome,
was the reply.
After q few moments consultation we de-
cided TO ask Pat if he had seen anything Of
the kittens.
'Sure they may have strsyed away in the
night"
"But they couldn't walk. They were
only three days old" objected.
a'That's thrue, Mister Tom; but thin q
cats cunnin' cratur. To see wan of thin
blinkin' by the fire al day ye'd niver think
they could make the noise they do at night;
and they'd be concealin' their strength in
the daytime to use it at night" answered
Pat.
Plainly there was nothing to be learned
from Pat.
After thinking 1t over for q while, Char.
lie suggested that we hunt up the young
ones. We started toward the grove behind
the barn with vague idea that people got
lost in forests, and that it would be quite
possible for the kittens to have lost them
selves in the grove.
maybe they have hid in the tree" sug-
gested Charlie.
"They eonldn't get there" answered.
"But Pat said that they could do more in
the night" urged Charlie.
was eleven years old, and was half in
cliLed to doubt Pats reasoning, the more
that remembered hearing my father ex-
.olofvn ho tho Ai1oOuorry Of
the kittens:
"GOodnessl we can't have four more cats
I don't get any too much sleep as it is, and
an addition of q quartette to our nightly
concert Is not to be thought Of"
Charlie was my junior by two years, and
his faith in Patrick was mistaken, so he
said,
'1'm going up to see, anyhow" He
thrust his hand into the hole, and pulled it
out again, triumphantly shouting, What
did l tell your Here is the"-he paused to
examine his prize, and continued in crest
fallen tone-"a young squirrel"
"Give 1t to me, and get the rest" di-
rected.
They were very young, and were queer
fuzzy looking animals. Charlie and ex-
amined them, and then the thought struck
me that we might give them to the cat in
place of her lost kittens.
We ran back to the barn and placed
them in the manager. Madame Puss looked
puzzled for moment, first gazing at the
squIrrels, then at US, as if hardly knowing
what to do. But she soon decided, and with
a comical purr, as if to say, 81 suppose it is
all right, but those children have certainly
changed" she drew the squirrels toward
her, and washed first one, then another, and
finally went TO sleep with her strange family
cuddled close to her.
After that she took the best care of her
adopted children. The squirrels grew, and
began TO climb out OF the manager and run
around the barn. Madame Puss was at
first distressed by this, but she soon got
used to it, and seemed rather to take de-
light in her precocious children who could
climb so much better than she could her
self. Her frat real trouble came when, at
ter patient waiting, she caught q mouse and
carried it 10 the barn in triumph.
The squirrels looked on in perfect indiff-
dainty mOrsel. Puss was surprised, but q
when they paid not the slightest attention
to it, she was in despair. Had she, then,
brought up family which was to be of no
use to the world2 For day or two she
tried everything-meat, bits of fish, pieces
of cold potato until some happy inspirs-
ton led her to take them an almond which
had fallen from the dinner table. After
that she carried them bits of bread, corn,
and nuts, until they grew large enough to
come to the house themselves. Then they
ranged the place from cellar to garrett,
dropping asleep In mothers work-basket, in
fathers pockets, and in pureau drawer un-
until they became perfect nuisance. At last
the crisis came: one of them went to sleep
in fathers boot, and bit his toe severely
when he went to put it on; the squirrels
were sent to New York to be sold, and
Charlie and 1 each had a pair Of skates
from the proceeds of the sale.