ught so too, and they both tried to bite their own collar ribands, by
way of showing Jonas how impossible it was.

"I don't know exactly what the limits are of a squirrel's gnawing,"
said Jonas. "Perhaps he might tear it off with his claws."

"Or he might get another squirrel to gnaw it off for him," said James.

"Yes," said Jonas, "and there is another difficulty. He might be jumping
from one tree to another, and catch his collar in some little branch,
and so get hung, without judge or jury."

"What can we do then?" said Rollo.

"I think," said Jonas, "that the best plan would be to dye the end of
his tail black. That would not hurt him any; and yet, as he always holds
his tail up, we should see it, and know him."

The boys both thought this would be excellent, and Jonas said he had
some black dye, which he had made for dyeing some wood. Jonas was a very
ingenious boy, and used to make little boxes, and frames, and windmills,
with his penknife, in the long winter evenings, and he had made this dye
out of vinegar and old nails, to dye some of his wood with.

"I am not certain," said Jonas, "that my dye will color hair; I never
tried it, except on wood. Do you think that black would be a pretty
color?"

"No," said Rollo, "black would not be a very pretty color, but it would
do. Yellow, and red, and green, are pretty colors, but black, and brown,
and white, are not pretty at all."

"I have not got any yellow, or red, or green," said Jonas. "I don't know
but that I have got a little blue."

"O, blue would be beautiful," said James.

Then Jonas walked along into the barn, and Rollo and James followed him.
He went up stairs, and walked along to the farthest corner, and there,
up on a beam, were several small bottles all in a row. Jonas took down
one, and shook it, and said that was the blue.

He brought it down to the cage; Rollo went into the house, and brought
out an old bowl, and Jonas prepared to pour out the dye into it. They
then concluded that they would carry the whole apparatus down into the
edge of the woods, and perform the operation there; and then the
squirrel, when he was liberated, would easily find his way back to his
home. Jonas carried down a pair of thick, old gloves, to keep the
squirrel from biting him.

As they walked along, Rollo proposed that Jonas should dip the
squirrel's ears in as well as his tail; "because," said he, "we may
sometimes see him when he is half hid in the bushes, so t