s a flag."

"A truck?" said Caleb, enquiringly.

"Yes," said David, "a little wheel to put a string over to hoist it by."

Caleb looked upon the pole, and upon David's work, for a minute in
silence, and then said,

"I have got something better than a flag-staff."

"What?" asked Dwight.

"A squirrel."

"A squirrel!" said David in surprise.

"Yes," said Caleb, "a grey squirrel."

"Where is he?" said David, looking up eagerly, from his work.

"In the back-room," said Caleb. "Raymond put him in a box.--Come, and I
will shew him to you."

Down went Dwight's pole, in a moment; David, too, shut his knife, and
put it in his pocket, and off they went to see the squirrel.

The little nut-cracker was frightened at seeing so many eyes peeping in
upon him from every crevice and opening in his box. He looked much
brighter and better than he did when he was put into the box, and Caleb
thought he would get entirely well.

"O, I wish I had him," said Dwight.

"I am going to keep him in a cage," said Caleb.

"I wish he was mine," said Dwight. "Why can't you give him to me,
Caleb?"

"O, no," said Caleb, "I want to keep him."

"You don't know how to take care of him," said Dwight. "Come, you give
him to me, and I will give you my flag-staff."

"No," said Caleb, "I don't want any flag-staff. I want to keep the
squirrel."

"See, see," said David, "he is creeping along."

"O," said Dwight, "I _wish_ he was mine."

"There, he is curling up in the corner."

"Would you give him to me for my top?" said Dwight, very eagerly.

"He's going to eat that kernel of corn," said David.

"I should think you might give him to me," said Dwight, pettishly, "for
that top; the top is worth a great deal the most."

After a few minutes, Dwight finding that there was no prospect of
inducing Caleb to sell him the squirrel, desisted from his attempts; and
then, after a moment's pause, he said,

"I don't think it is your squirrel, after all, Caleb."

"Whose is it then?"

"Raymond's. He saved it. The poor thing would have been burnt up, if he
had not run and caught it up."

"No, he wouldn't," said Caleb, "I was just going to get him myself."

Dwight, having decided in his own mind that the squirrel was Raymond's,
ran off to find Raymond, with the design of asking him to give the
squirrel to him. But Raymond said the squirrel was Caleb's.

"But you caught him," said Dwight.

"Yes, but I caught him for Caleb, not for myself."