Jonas held down the half dollar, and showed to Rollo and James the marks and scratches made by the pin; proving that this was Rollo's half dollar. James looked ashamed and confounded; Jonas just waited to hear what he would say.
HEARTS RIGHT AGAIN.
James stood still a minute, thinking presently he said,
"Well, Rollo, I suppose my half dollar is lost, but I am glad yours is safe, at any rate."
"I am sorry yours is lost," said Rollo, "but then I can give you half of what I buy with mine."
"Where did you put the half dollars?" said Jonas.
"On that rock," said Rollo.
They walked along towards the rock. It was by the edge of the water; Jonas thought that as they had been dragging boughs of trees along near the rock, some little branch might have reached over and brushed off one of the pieces of money into the water. So he walked up to it and looked over.
In a minute or two, he pointed down, and the boys looked and saw something bright and glittering on the bottom.
"Is that it?" said James.
"I believe it is," said Jonas.
Jonas then took off his jacket, rolled up his shirt sleeve, lay down on the rock, and reached his arm down into the water, but it was a little too deep. He could not reach it.
"I cannot get it so," said he.
"What shall we do?" said James. "How foolish I was to put it so near the water!"
"I think we shall contrive some way to get it," said Jonas.
He then sat down on the rock and looked into the water. "We can go home and get a long pair of tongs, and get it with them at any rate," said he.
"O, yes," said Rollo, "I will go and get them;" and he ran off towards the bridge.
"No," said Jonas, "stop; I will try one plan more."
So he went and cut a long straight stem of a bush, and trimmed it up smooth, and cut the largest end off exactly square. Then he went to a hemlock tree near, and took off some of the gum, which was very "sticky." He pressed some of this with his knife on the end of the stick. Then he reached it very carefully down, and pressed it hard against the half dollar; it crowded the half dollar down into the sand, out of sight.
"There, you have lost it," said James.
"I don't know," said Jonas; and he began slowly and carefully to draw it up.
When the end of the stick came up out of the sand, the boys saw, to their great delight, that the half dollar was sticking fast on. They clapped their hands, and capered about on the stone, while Jonas gently drew up the half dollar, and put it, all wet and dripping, into James's hand.
The boys thanked Jonas for getting up the money, and then they asked him to keep both pieces for them until they went home. Then they began to think of the wigwam again.
"We will make the window as you want it, James," said Rollo; "I am willing."
"No," said James, "I was just going to say we would make it your way. I rather think it would be better to make it towards the land."
"Why can you not have two windows?" said Jonas.
"So we can," said both of the boys; and they immediately went to work collecting branches and weaving them in, leaving a space for a window both sides. Their quarrelsome feelings were all gone, and they talked very pleasantly at their work until it was time for them to go home to dinner.
THE STEEPLE TRAP
[Illustration: "An escape."]
THE STEEPLE TRAP
* * * * *
THE WAY TO CATCH A SQUIRREL
The afternoon of the day when Rollo and his cousin James made their wigwam in the woods by the brook, they were at work there again, employed very harmoniously together, in finishing their edifice, when suddenly Jonas, who was at work in the woods at a little distance, heard them both calling to him, in tones of surprise and pleasure-
"O, Jonas, Jonas, come here quick-quick."
Jonas dropped his axe and ran.
When he got near them, they pointed to a log.
"See there;-see;-see there."
"What is it?" said Jonas. "O, I see it," said he.
It was a little squirrel clambering up a raspberry-bush, eating the raspberries as he went along. He would climb up by the little branches, and pull in the raspberries in succession, until he got to the topmost one, when the bush would bend over with his weight until it almost touched the log.
"Let us catch him," said Rollo, very eagerly; "do let us catch him; I will go and get our steeple trap."
Jonas did not seem to be so very much delighted as the boys were. He said he was certainly a cunning little fellow, but "what should we do with him if we should catch him?"
"O," said Rollo, "we would put him in a little cage. It would be so complete to have him in a cage! Do, Jonas, do."
"But you have not got any cage."
"We can get one," said James. "We can buy one with our half dollars."
"Well," said Jonas, "it will do no good to set the trap now, for he will be away before we could get back. But I will come down to-night, and set the trap, and perhaps we shall catch him, though I do not exactly like to do it."
"Why?" said the boys.
"O," replied Jonas, "he will not like to be shut up all night, in a dark box, and then be imprisoned in a cage. He had rather run about here, and gather raspberries. Besides, you would soon get tired of him if you had him in a cage."
"O no," said Rollo, "I should not get tired of him."
"Did you ever have any plaything that you were not tired of before long?"
"Why,-no," said Rollo; "but then a real live squirrel is a different thing. Besides, you know, if I get tired of him, I need not play with him then."
"No, but a real live thing must be fed every day, and that you would find a great trouble. And then you would sometimes forget it, and the poor fellow would be half starved."
"O no," said Rollo; "I am sure I should not forget it."
"Did you remember your reading-lesson this morning?"
"Why,-no," said Rollo, looking a little confused. "But I am sure I should not forget to feed a squirrel if I had one."
"You don't know as much as I thought you did," replied Jonas.
"Why?"
"I thought you knew more about yourself than to suppose you could be trusted to do any thing regularly every day. Why, you would not remember to wash your own face every morning, if your mother did not remind you. The squirrel is almost as fit to take care of you in your wigwam, as you are to take care of him in a cage."
Rollo felt a little ashamed of his boasting, for he knew that what Jonas said was true. Jonas said, finally, "However, we will try to catch him; but I cannot promise that I shall let you keep him in a cage. It will be bad enough for him to be shut up all night in the box trap, but I can pay him for that the next day in corn."
So Jonas brought down the box trap that night. It was a long box, about as big as a cricket, with a tall, pointed back, which looked like a steeple; so Rollo called it the steeple trap. It was so made that if the squirrel should go in, and begin to nibble some corn, which they were going to put in there, it would make the cover come down and shut him in. They fixed the trap on the end of the log, and Jonas observed, as he sat on the log, that he could see the barn chamber window through a little opening among the trees. Of course he knew that from the barn chamber window he could see the trap, though it would be too far off to see it plain.
THE WAY TO LOSE A SQUIRREL
Early the next morning, James came over to learn whether they had caught the squirrel; and he and Rollo wanted Jonas to go down with them and see. Jonas said he could not go down then very well, but if he would go and ask his father to lend him his spy-glass, he could tell without going down.
Now Jonas had been a very faithful and obedient boy, ever since he came to live with Rollo's father. He had some great faults when he first came, but he had cured himself of them, and he was now an excellent and trustworthy boy. It was a part of his business to take care of Rollo, and they always let him have what he asked for from the house, as they knew it was for some good purpose, and that it would be well taken care of. So when Rollo went in and asked for the spy-glass, and said that Jonas wanted it, they handed it down to him at once.