more.

It happened that one limb of the great elm before the house was hollow
for a considerable distance up from the trunk of the tree, and there was
a hole leading into this hollow limb at the crotch, where the limb grew
out from the tree. She thought that this would make a fine house for the
squirrel, if he could only be induced to think so himself, and live
there. It occurred to her that she might put him in, and fasten up the
hole with wires for a time, like a cage; and she thought that if she
kept him shut up there, and fed him there with plenty of nuts and corn,
for a week or two, he would gradually forget his old home in the woods,
and get wonted to his new one.

After thinking of several ways of fastening up the mouth of the hole,
she concluded finally on the following plan. She got some small nails,
and drove them in pretty near together on each side of the hole, and
then she took a long piece of fine wire, and passed it across from one
to the other, in such a manner as to cover the mouth of the hole with a
sort of net-work of wire. She then got Raymond to put the squirrel in
through a place which she left open for that purpose, and then she
closed this place up like the rest, with wires. The squirrel ran up into
the limb, and disappeared.

When the boys came and saw the ingenious cage which Mary Anna had
contrived, they thought it was an excellent plan; and they asked her if
she was not afraid that when she opened the cage door, he would run off
into the woods again. She said she was very much afraid that he would,
but that still there was a possibility that he might stay; and if he
should, she should often see him from her window, running about the
tree, and she should take so much more pleasure in that than in seeing
him shut up in a cage, that she thought she should prefer to take the
risk. She made the boys promise not to go to the hole, for fear they
might frighten him, and she said she meant to feed him herself every
day, with nuts and corn, and try to get him tame before she took away
the wires.

The children felt a good deal of curiosity to see whether the squirrel
would stay in the tree or run away, when Mary Anna should open his cage
door; and after a few days, they were eager to have her try the
experiment. But she said, no. She wished to let him have full time to
become well accustomed to his new home.

Mary Anna generally went early in the morning to feed the
squirrel,--before the boys were